Boy From the Ruins
by Kimiko Nishimura
Summary: AU: Kanda was just an unmotivated warrior, wishing the war would end. So when he found that mysterious child in the ruins who promised anything as long as he freed him, what would he ask for? M for violence. Yullen, but not romance for a reason.
1. War and Desire

_Kimiko: This is my first DGM fic! It's going to be OOC, so you don't have to compare it to Hoshino's series. Because she's much more amazing than I could ever be, seeing as she made these characters. Just tell me if it's any good. And it's probably going to get much better [and bloodier].  
><em>

**War and Desire**

Yu Kanda could smell the battle even here in the camp. Even after four days, he could still smell the bloodshed, rotting flesh, gunpowder, and smoking steel. The sounds had been significantly muffled, as he had pitched his tent as far from the medical tent as possible. The men had stopped complaining about the losses and pointlessness of the battle.

Their side hadn't won, but neither did the other side. Kanda had long forgotten what they were fighting for, what name they were representing. The war was meaningless as far as he could tell. No one except the commander was motivated to fight under the flag they carried into battle. The apathy was even evident in the banner's visible likeness. It was stained by rain, smoke and even some blood. Everyone they passed, when they weren't hiding in their homes, could tell. These soldiers didn't care about the war they were fighting in.

Kanda was just here to make money. He was a warrior and he was good at it, even though he was only nineteen. He wasn't about to die, and once the war was over, he would get his money. If the other side won, he would plunder the places he passed anyway, out of spite.

But the war was still pointless.

The camp still reeked of leftover battle.

People still died.

Not that he really cared about too many people in the camp. Alma Karma, his childhood friend had come along. He was the one who urged Kanda to join the army. He was acquaintances with a few others: Marie and Daisya. And there was that annoying soldier named Lavi, but he could care less about that one.

Kanda started to get pissed off for no reason. Or maybe there was a reason. He was annoyed at the junk he was starting to think of. He didn't need to think. He just had to fight. Thinking was for the battlefield. Thinking off the battlefield was for the commander.

Kanda got up and began walking out of the camp. There has to be someplace that didn't stink.

As he passed another tent, Alma saw him. "Hey, Yu, where are you going?"

"Out," Kanda growled. "I can't stand this smell. I'll be back later."

Alma nodded. "I'll make sure the commander doesn't go looking for you." That was good. The commander, Howard Link, was paranoid about deserters. "Don't be too long."

"I won't." Kanda kept walking out of the camp. He spat in disgust. It was slightly better, but there was still a faint rotten smell in the air. It was just noticeable enough to be irritating. Kanda looked around. There was a forest a little ways away. It was even farther from the battlefield. Forests would mean other smells that might block the haunting dead-and-dying stink. He began to head for it, still listening for anyone from the camp chasing after him. He didn't expect to meet any enemies, but he still had his katana with him, just in case. Kanda was, after all, a warrior, much better than these pitiful soldiers who were cheap as dirt. He knew how to survive a battle, and a war.

He reached the trees now and kept walking. The whole forest had an evergreen smell. It started to purge his senses of the sensation that had been festering inside him for the past week. He could hear the still silence of nature now. He stopped and closed his eyes, actually enjoying himself for the first time in a while.

Kanda opened his eyes again and walked in the same direction he started, not wanting to lose his way. He looked around, but there were no signs that any humans had been here for a while. He continued; glad to be in a place with nothing.

After a few minutes, he saw something far up ahead through the trees. He narrowed his eyes. It didn't look like a house, but it didn't look natural, either. He walked faster, but kept the noise he made to a minimum.

He finally came to the place. It looked like the old stone ruins of what once might have been a castle. Or some other ancient civilization. It didn't really matter.

Kanda would have turned back, but there was something about the ruins that intrigued him. He hadn't felt like this for years. Something inside was compelling him to go further, to explore, to enter the crumbling place. It wasn't like he had anything else to do. Kanda slowly began to walk deeper into the mess of stone remains. They were covered with creepers, ivy, shrubs and moss.

He could barely see inscriptions carved onto the walls, but he ignored these as he kept walking around. Eventually he found himself at what felt like the heart of the place. There was a small shrine, also covered with wild green growth. Kanda walked up to this and stopped.

Here the pulling was strongest.

This was kind of bothersome. He had left the camp to get away from unwanted sensations like this. But his warrior senses told him this wasn't anything normal. It wasn't anything hostile, though. This feeling felt old and ponderous, like a storm brewing. Kanda looked into the shrine.

Inside was a small figure.

Was this what he had been feeling? How annoying. He looked harder. It was a child.

"Hey, brat," Kanda said, his voice sounding loud in the jarringly silent place. "What the hell are you doing here?"

The child crawled into a shaft of light. He looked up with wide silver eyes at the warrior. The kid had white hair that fell across parts of his face, a weird red mark that ran through one eye, and old-looking black clothes. He couldn't have been more than ten years old. He blinked at Kanda before answering.

"I can't get out."

Kanda rolled his eyes. "You're lost? Well, listen, I don't have the time to go looking for your folks, brat. I'm sure they're looking for you. Though it's going to be harder if you're playing hide-and-seek in here,"

"No, I can't get out."

"What do you mean, you damn brat?" Was this the only thing he could say?

Rather than speaking, the boy pointed behind him. Now Kanda noticed that he was wearing a collar that was attached by a length of chain to the wall behind him. Was this someone's joke? Or was someone trying to get rid of the kid? No, they wouldn't go to this length just to get rid of an unwanted child.

"Sir," the child whispered. "I'll give you anything if you free me."

"What could you possibly give me in your position?" Kanda scoffed.

"Anything, as long as you release me."

"Sure, whatever," Kanda could hardly believe this. The kid was bargaining for an escape. He'd probably realize that no one wanted him once he got back home, though. "You're trying to be the spirit that grants three wishes. All right, then I want you to help me end the war."

"If that is what you want."

Kanda was about to laugh. How could the kid end a war that all the carnage of combat could not? But the kid's eyes were serious. "Listen, kid, it's an impossible thing. No one but the leaders can really end the war. And they're not going to do that anytime soon." Why was he talking to this kid even remotely seriously? This was a waste of time.

But the kid's eyes were serious. Kanda sighed. He might as well let the kid go. Some other traveler might not be as kind as him.

Kanda looked at the chain again. It was pretty thin and looked really weak in places. If the kid had hit it hard enough, it could've broken, but there wasn't anything around to hit it with. He unsheathed his katana and swung the blade at one of the weaker spots.

It broke the chain neatly.

Suddenly there was an odd rush of wind throughout the ruins. Kanda looked up, but the sky was just as clear and blissfully sunny as before. He looked back at the kid, ready to tell him to run off now, but he seemed different.

The kid's mark on his face was glowing red. His eyes were glowing silver. The chain was turning wispy, almost ghostlike. Clearly, he said, "You want the war to end. That is your desire." The rush of wind came again.

"I am the yokai that is called Allen, the Bloody Clown. As promised, I'll contract with you now, Yu Kanda, to give you your desire."

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: If you like this, please review! If you don't, you don't have to complain here.<br>**


	2. Beansprout and Warrior

_Kimiko: Thanks for all your reviews! I love you all! Because you asked, I tried to get it out soon. I hope there aren't too many mistakes. And Creshirecat, I like that idea, so I'm going to use it, okay? Thanks again! I'll try to get another one tomorrow..._

_Flanagan [Kimiko's best friend]: Remember, it's OOC.  
><em>

**Beansprout and Warrior**

Kanda raised one eyebrow questioningly when he heard those words. Wait. Wasn't this all a joke he had made with the brat? This kid was seriously creeping him out now. He was about to tell the kid to just go away, but these actions were getting a little too surreal for a child to be just playing. And what was with all the shit he just spewed out of his mouth?

The kid reached his hand out at him and Kanda backed away quickly. He didn't need some clingy shrimp getting attached to him. He hated kids. Always had, always would.

But the boy wasn't that easily deterred. He jumped forward like some freaky unearthly thing and grabbed onto the front of Kanda's shirt. Instantly the warrior felt a burning sensation on his skin directly underneath the place where his shirt was being held. Pissed, he slapped the kid on the face to get him off, but his hand seemed to slip right off him.

The kid—no, it was annoying thinking of him as a kid. He was tiny and pale, like a bean sprout. The kid could call himself whatever he wanted, Kanda didn't care. Anyway, the _beansprout _had let go of his shirt now, but his chest was still burning.

"What the fuck did you do, you damn beansprout?" Kanda snapped. This bean had a lot of explaining to do. No, forget the explaining. Kanda wanted to punch him, but he remembered what happened when he tried to slap him. It had hit, but not completely. This beansprout was doing something weird. Maybe he could still slice him in two, though. He kept a hand on his katana, just in case the blasted creature in front of him did something else.

"That's the sign of my promise to you," the beansprout said simply. Kanda noticed his face had returned to normal, or as normal as the freak could get. "Until I complete your desire, I'll remain bound to you. Your desire is to end the war you are currently fighting in, right?"

"Yeah, I kinda want the stupid war to end, but how could you possibly do that just by following me around?" This was annoying. Kanda saw no reason why he should listen to the beansprout and talk to him like he was sane, but it might discourage the thick kid from following him into a battlefield. Not that he cared. It would just be an inconvenience.

But the beansprout was still deadly serious. "At your battles, I can turn the odds in your favor."

"You don't look much like a good luck charm. Besides, I don't believe in that crap." Kanda shot back.

"You still don't understand. I'm a yokai." With that, the kid's eyes and mark glowed dangerously again. He seemed to change, shifting his form into something still similar to his original form, but still different. He now had spikier hair, a longer black left arm with sinister-looking claws, and a grayish white cloak covering most of his body. For a ten-year-old shrimp, it was strange. He looked like a freaky clown-child. But he still had the same indifferent expression, even as he shifted back into the child form. It was as if he was waiting for Kanda to say something.

What was Kanda supposed to say? This kid was obviously not human. Was he really some yokai? There were a lot of questions in his head, but he hated asking people for answers. It felt like he was relying on people and Kanda hated that. Instead, he could force the beansprout into giving him the answers he wanted. "So," he began. "You must be the yokai of clowns, because you're just goofing around in here,"

The child looked slightly indignant. "I wasn't goofing around. I was sealed into that shrine a long time ago, but I can't remember why. I'm still partially bound by this spirit-chain," Kanda could see. The kid's now-ghostlike chain was still attached, but it ended in a wispy trail that drifted near Kanda. "But I know that if I can fulfill the contract with you, I can free myself from the seal."

"So you couldn't break it yourself?" This still felt like an interrogation. How annoying. Kanda began to walk out of the ruins. The beansprout followed like a shadow.

"No, I can't. It sealed my power. But when I complete your desire, the conclusion releases a strong burst of energy that I can use to break the rest of the chain."

"So until then, you'll be haunting me?" Kanda asked, wondering if the kid would chase after him if he walked faster. He didn't really want some weird ghost-beansprout following him back to the camp. It would bring too many questions.

"I can be away from you, but not for too far. And no one but you can see me. And now that you can see me, you'll see other yokai."

That was helpful. The thing could stay away from him whenever he told him to. He just had to shut up when he was around other people. Still this was troublesome. Kanda didn't know how helpful an invisible clown yokai child could be in a battle, but he might as well keep it. At least, he would keep it until he found a priest to get rid of it for him. One that worked for free.

Slightly exasperated, Kanda gave his short instructions to the child, who accepted them silently.

They had exited the forest now. Kanda was starting to work out the deal that he had unknowingly made in his head. This spirit wanted to help him win battles so the war could end, and so he could be freed from his bondage. Kanda thought he might be able to stand having the thing follow, remotely, until then. It might work. If the beansprout/yokai (he had decided it probably was a yokai by now) actually didn't do anything to help, he could always forget about it and just rely on his own abilities again. Kanda usually liked to do things on his own, but if he was stuck with this bothersome child, he might as well force it to do what it promised.

There should be a battle soon. It had been like this for months. The company would rest for a few days, and then they would be told to go to a new battlefield and do the whole routine all over again. Once they were in the new place, he could see just what his unwanted yokai could do.

Kanda had almost forgotten the stink of the camp he had been trying to avoid. He got into the camp easily enough, without anyone, even Alma, asking where he had gone. And apparently the beansprout had been right when he claimed the no one could see him. If that had been a lie, Kanda would have sliced the idiot brat up in seconds.

He had almost gotten to his tent when he heard a voice behind him. "Mister Yu Kanda,"

Kanda would have ignored it if it was anyone else. But this was the commander, Link the Fink, as some soldiers called him. He was a little too enthusiastic for the cause they were fighting for, and often volunteered his men for battle. Alma thought he was a rather inexperienced, rash, zealot. Kanda would come up with snarkier comments on his own views of the commander, but it wasn't his place to say it in front of the man.

"Yes, Commander," he said clearly. He was better than the lower soldier riffraff who decorated their tones with their contempt for their leader.

"Have you been out of the camp recently?" Kanda wondered if the man was on to him. But Link didn't have his normal intimidating look. He seemed more curious. Maybe Kanda was one of the people he wanted to ask to find out something he couldn't get from his officers.

"Not particularly. The last time I was out was for the battle."

"Oh," Link thought for a moment before responding. "Then have you heard any rumors about something in the forest?"

"No." This he actually hadn't heard about, though he supposed if Link was talking about ghosts and such, there was one about ten meters from him.

Link processed this, then thanked him for his time and left. Kanda wondered if Link had been discreetly asking about something like the beansprout. More questions arrived in his head, but he chased them out soon. Because they were mostly about that freak he found and for some reason brought back.

He didn't want to spend his free time thinking about the yokai. He wanted it to stay out of his sight and mind for a while.

Kanda just wanted to be a soldier, but now, something like either doubt or ambition was beginning to grow in the back of his mind.

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: I don't really know all that much about wars, despite the fact that I live near a few battlefields. If I get something wrong, I'm sorry. And also, I'm just a fan who's crazy enough to want to write fanfiction. So if there's something weird, I probably didn't mean it to be that way. Still, do you want to review?<br>**


	3. Battle and Bloodshed

_Kimiko: Hi again! Here's the next chapter. And I checked again, but I discovered again that I don't own -man. I know nothing more than any other hardcore DGM fan could know._

**Battle and Bloodshed**

Kanda found out that evening that he wouldn't have to wait long for a battle after all. Before the sun went down, Commander Link called the company together and announced that they would be moving out in the morning. There was going to be another conflict about eight miles away, between a village and a bridge. They would be meeting up with another unit to face the enemy. When Lavi asked what the numbers on each side would be, Link reported that their side had less, but the other side's soldiers had less experience.

The numbers didn't mean much to Kanda. He would cut down anyone in his path and simply follow his orders. That's all he came to war to do.

He had noticed the beansprout had followed him to the gathering, but was still obediently keeping his distance. Kanda didn't look at him. He didn't want to be bothered by any small talk, even though the brat hadn't made much when he insisted that he be left alone. He got enough unwanted conversation from Alma, Marie, Daisya and Lavi.

The meeting was already over and his not-friends were coming over to him to talk. Kanda rolled his eyes, but decided he would put up with it. He did somewhat enjoy Alma's company, but the others were unnecessary. And that idiotic rabbit-like person, Lavi, was just about the most annoying thing on earth, besides children. No, maybe the reason he was so annoying was because he acted like a child half the time. Though he was a decent soldier on the battlefield, Kanda still found him bothersome.

They walked over to Alma's tent, the others chatting about random stuff that Kanda didn't even pay attention to. Once there, Kanda leaned against a wooden post and closed his eyes. This was one of the few places in the camp that didn't smell bad because Alma kept scented herbs in a pouch hanging from the top of the tent. Kanda rather enjoyed it here, and so did the others.

He had just started to feel relatively peaceful when he heard Lavi's voice whispering in his ear, "Hey, Yu, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Kanda opened his eyes and glared at his fellow soldier. "No."

"It's kind of important."

"Go away." The others had apparently gone off to get water because Alma's canteen was gone with them.

"All right, then," Lavi said, sitting back. "I just wanted to know about that yokai that's following you around."

Kanda sat upright and stared suspiciously at Lavi. But he didn't seem to be joking. "You can see that beansprout? He said no one could."

"I've been able to see yokai for a long time." Lavi explained, holding up his hands defensively because Kanda was about to pull out his katana. "He probably meant that everyone who's never encountered a yokai before can't see them. And wait, what did you mean by beansprout? He's a yokai. Is that his name?"

"So you mean that more people could see him?" Kanda asked, ignoring the other question.

"Only people like me, who've had an accidental physical encounter with a yokai. But how did you find him?"

"Like I have any reason to tell you," Kanda growled. He got up and left the tent before the idiot could say anything else. He knew the kid was probably still following him.

Kanda figured that if anyone else could really see it, they would either ignore it, or freak out. But now this felt a little weirder.

If nothing happened on the day of the battle, he was definitely going to get rid of the brat.

* * *

><p>Kanda was almost curious to see what the beansprout could do in battle. He had, after all, seen the kid's claws. Now, as he waited for the order to move, he couldn't help but wonder.<p>

Quickly, he snapped his attention back. He had a job to do. He was here to kill people.

After a few more moments, the order was called and Kanda quickly began to move. His group was moving out of the thin woods, across a wide, dead plain and to the edge of the bridge, where they would hold until the second wave came to support them. They didn't have to eliminate everyone, but at least break through the enemy's line.

Beside him, he felt a brief shimmer of wind, like a smaller version of the one in the ruins. He glanced to his side and saw that the beansprout-yokai had changed again, but this time was slightly different. The kid had a look of concentration on his face, one that felt dark and unnatural. The kid began to speed up.

Faster than Kanda now, he ran straight into the field that was supposed to be full of enemies hidden behind large boulders. His claws shone with a deadly light that was only clear in Kanda's eyes. Still, somehow Kanda believed that the enemies could feel the dread that the kid's atmosphere evoked. The kid leaped over the first boulder he came to.

Kanda was just breaking through the trees when he heard the scream and saw the kid's claws flash back. They were now dappled with blood. If Kanda had looked closer, he would have seen the yokai holding shreds of skin from a man's face. But the kid was fast. He struck again, presumably at the second person, and this time, Kanda couldn't see what he was doing. Instead he focused on the task at hand.

The premature reaction had made almost all of the enemy soldiers look out and give away their positions. The second wave of Kanda's supporters had noticed this, still in the trees and the officers had decided to get them to support with gunfire.

Kanda weaved between the bullets shot at him and approached another rock. He had his katana ready when he got to the back of it. Before the three enemies realized it, he had already sliced neatly through their necks. One of them got a slightly deeper cut and the dumbfounded head rolled straight off the body. As with any cut like this, blood nearly sprayed onto Kanda, but he had moved back enough to avoid the bloodbath.

It was troublesome having to wash too much blood and gore off of his uniform.

He kept moving. The enemies could have gotten out from behind the stupid boulders, seeing as how their attackers now knew exactly where they were. They were all mostly staying back, cowing from the gunfire that slammed into their rocks. All they could wait for was the ground soldiers like Kanda to come and slaughter them. Speaking of slaughter…

Kanda cut off another man's head and knelt down behind the now vacant rock (vacant, except for the fresh corpse) to take a momentary look at the place where the beansprout had headed. It took him a while to find him. Kanda eventually saw him, at least twice as far ahead of the rest as before. The kid was almost completely covered in the enemy's blood now. His claw was still as fast as a snake. And the people he was killing had no idea what was happening.

Another soldier screamed in horror as he watched the friend beside him simply burst into bloody shreds. Kanda realized that the soldiers must be seeing something as the kid moved along, but he wasn't sure what. A dark shadow seemed to follow the kid as he kept moving on, not hesitating at all while clearing a path for the rest of Kanda's unit.

The warrior continued again, but the yokai was so fast and efficient that he knew the battle would be over soon. This would be a crushing blow to their enemy if he continued like this. It appeared that all the beansprout knew how to do right now was mercilessly tear apart every opponent fighter he came across. It was amazing and fearsome at the same time.

Almost all of the hostile soldiers in the field were dead, and the kid was already to the bridge. All of the soldiers on Kanda's side were getting confident. They thought their comrades were killing all of the enemies, while only Kanda knew otherwise. Still, a morale booster like this would definitely push them to the conclusion of the battle soon. Once they took the bridge, the enemy would certainly leave.

Kanda reached the bridge, along with a dozen others, and found it full of dead bodies. There would be no need to wait for the second wave.

The kid had been right. He could and probably would be the easy ticket to their victories. And to an end to the war.

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: To my dear wierdsquirrelgirl, you don't have to worry. Lavi can see Allen now, but he won't get to talk to him until later. Maybe someone else will be able to also, later again. It might even be a key part of the plot later. (O.O) But Allen was visible in the shrine because he couldn't use any of his energy to hide himself from humans. In fact, I bet he was trying to be found by humans…<strong>


	4. Victory and Yokai

_Kimiko: Sorry if you were waiting for this. I was having trouble getting started, but I didn't really want to break my habit of uploading something every day._

**Victory and Yokai**

Kanda kept moving on to the rest of the places where the enemy was supposed to be but only found death comparable to in the field and on the bridge. Everywhere he looked, the remaining hostile troops were either torn to pieces by the lethal claws or shot by the soldier's bullets. Many of them had apparently tried to flee, as they were face down on the ground, dead. These two had either been shot or sliced up by the yokai. Victims of the latter were particularly grotesque close up. If you looked closely, you could see their broken spines and even ribs poking out of the gory mess.

Even for a trained warrior like Kanda, it was a grisly sight to behold. He was used to seeing the effects of swords that smashed powerfully through bodies, katanas that cut evenly, axes that hacked brutally, spears, clubs, firearms, and even the newer grenades, cannons and Gatling guns. All of these tools had been designed to kill people. They all left former humans as vile, bleeding refuse on the battlefields. But he had never really seen a living thing cut through so many people so quickly and efficiently, ripping the life away as he ripped through the skin.

The beansprout could really work hard. He hadn't been kidding when he said he would be helpful in battle.

He gathered with his division again as he heard a short trumpet call. They hardly spoke, waiting for some kind of explanation for the short day's events. They held a mixture of anticipation and exhilaration. Kanda supposed that they were excited at the easy victory. As far as they knew, the enemy could have been annihilated by some other force. It could be a good thing or a bad thing.

The officer of their division, Winters Zocaro, was just as in the dark as anyone. He was trying to connect with the other divisions over the radio-golem. They watched him listen for a while, occasionally speaking to the communication device.

"Well, men," he finally growled. "This is our victory. Suman Dark's guys are going to secure the area. Meanwhile, we can head back to camp." He stopped, seeming to consider another option. "Or, if you don't mind walking too far, there's a decent town called Cit'tian two miles or more from the bridge. As long as you check in with me before you leave, I don't care. I think you've earned it."

The soldiers cheered and just about every one of them began making a clamor, asking for a few days' leave. Kanda noticed Alma, Daisya, Marie and Lavi coming over to talk to him.

"You're going to Cit'tian too, right Yu?" Alma asked. Kanda shrugged. It didn't really matter.

"Then I'll tell Zocaro," Daisya said as he too joined the mass trying to speak to the officer, who was just about to tell them all to leave for the town.

The group of five first stopped by their camp to change and drop off some of their equipment. Then they headed off down the road, still lined with bodies. They ignored these, considering them to be little more than obstacles in their path. Alma, Daisya and Lavi began talking about what they would do in the town while Marie and Kanda walked in silence.

Kanda looked slowly around to see if the yokai was still following. He had a lot of things he wanted to ask the beansprout now that he had seen his ruthlessness in the battle. There he was, trailing along in the grass about eight meters away from them. He was mostly looking at things in the grass, but he noticed that Kanda was looking back and smiled brightly.

How could he smile like a kid after being such a cold-blooded killer? Maybe it was something that came with being a yokai. For all Kanda knew, the kid could have killed thousands of people before. He didn't know if yokai aged at all.

"Kanda, what is it back there?" Marie's soft voice brought Kanda's attention back to the front.

"Nothing really."

* * *

><p>The town was almost a small city. It didn't seem to have been occupied by their enemies, and Kanda wondered why. Neither did it seem to be very worried about the war. But then again, the shopkeepers and townspeople were already making business off of the new arrivals. This must have happened with the opposite side a few days before. The war was a business to these people.<p>

Daisya dragged Marie off almost as soon as they entered Cit'tian. Alma and Lavi said they would hang around Kanda to keep him company, which he asserted that he did not need. Nevertheless, they pulled him into a restaurant and got him at a table.

Kanda hadn't realized how hungry he had gotten that day. He ordered something simple while Lavi and Alma were boggled by the specials of the day. Kanda figured these were the "Soldier Specials," with not-so-special prices. It was almost predictable.

As he waited for the food, he remembered the kid again. Did yokai eat? Well, it wasn't really his problem. He would lose these two idiots and talk with the kid later.

"Hey, Yu," Alma leaned on the table to look his friend in the face. "What did you think about the end to the battle today, huh? Pretty amazing,"

"Yeah," Lavi added. He shot a look to Kanda. "I have no idea how it happened, do you? Maybe luck was on our side."

"There is no luck in war, only experience." Kanda shot back. "How should I know anything about the battle? The enemy was weak and easily scared, even though they did outnumber us. We had the edge and the experience."

"I guess," Alma muttered. Their food arrived and there was less conversation, even though Lavi managed to say something stupid every minute or so. Once they were done, Alma managed to move the conversation to speculations about the town. It was better talk than anything at the camp, so even Kanda threw in a sarcastic comment a few times.

Finally Lavi and Alma resolved to go to a bar to drink. They paid for their meal and Alma quickly excused himself to find a bathroom before they left. Kanda took this opportunity to leave. He had no intention of following them around everywhere. He began to walk out of the restaurant, but Lavi caught his arm.

"So I assume that your yokai did that today, right, Yu?"

Kanda wrenched his arm out of the other's grip. "Don't call me that, you dumb shitty rabbit-brain." He left the place.

He looked around again and finally saw the beansprout sitting on the roof of the building he had just exited. No one was around, so he called up to him.

"What are you doing up there, beansprout?"

The kid jumped lightly down. "I was just waiting for you to finish."

Of course. Kanda really didn't want to waste time on idle conversation; he had wasted enough in the restaurant with Alma and Lavi. But talking to a ghostly yokai in the middle of the street would be awkward.

"Follow me. I want to ask you about something." Kanda began searching for a quiet, secluded part of town. The beansprout obediently followed. He was so faithfully silent that Kanda had to keep looking back to make sure he wasn't getting lost or anything.

Kanda started to fume when he realized that the town was a little too lively. He couldn't find what he was looking for. Did this place just never rest? After what felt like half an hour, he finally came across the kind of thing he wanted. It was a large plot of grassy land, with trees and bushes around the outside. Probably the place where kids when to play on sunny days, but it was already evening. There should be no one there. This was the place he was looking for. The two sat down on the grass at the center.

"All right, now tell me exactly what you are, what you did, and anything that you haven't said yet. Don't you dare lie to me, or I'm going to stick you back in that shrine."

The kid's eyes widened, but he nodded seriously. "Okay. I'm Allen. As a yokai, I'm called the Bloody Clown. I can make my left arm into a claw for offensive purposes. At the battle, I did as I thought you wanted. I killed those enemies to help you end it sooner. And what else would you want to know? I can't remember why I was sealed, what I was doing before, or much at all before it. I can remember some names and faces but I think they're all other yokai. Um, I want to help you end the war so I can finish breaking the seal. And, oh, at the ruins, I wasn't trying to do anything wrong. I had to make a mark of the contract to finish it. I'm very sorry if it hurt."

That was just about everything Kanda had been wondering about. He had noticed the odd mark on his chest where the beansprout had grabbed at him, but he had made the conclusion that it had to do with the yokai's 'contract' before.

But he didn't want to end it like this. "Are you sure you can't remember much of your life before the shrine?" he demanded.

The kid shrank back. "I don't really remember. I can visualize faces and some names, but that's it."

"What names?"

"Tyki. Road. Mana. Cross. Earl. I'm not sure who they are or what they mean."

This was still a start. Kanda tried another route. He knew it was pointless to get mad at the yokai, because he knew now that this beansprout, Allen, could actually help him end the war.

"When you were fighting, could you tell if anyone else saw you?"

"Except for that man with the eye patch, no," he replied. "I can tell when people can see yokai. But when I am in my offensive form, I am slightly visible to anyone as a shadow. It has more to do with the natural effect of my power. Some yokai don't have too much of a fear effect, but powerful ones can influence a lot of people."

The kid had affected a lot of people. Even Kanda had felt some reaction to it, but he could also see the object of the fear. But still, it was hard to remember, in that moment, that the monstrous yokai usually looked like a harmless little child. Now, as Kanda looked over the child, he kept noticing the wide silver eyes, the simple clothes, the pale skin and the threadlike chain and collar. Kanda had to admit that he looked like an innocent kid, especially with the weird arm and the mark that looked like a horrible scar. A cute little kid…

No, he couldn't think like that. The beansprout was a weapon that Kanda intended to use to end the war. Even if it seemed heartless now.

"Listen, beansprout," he ordered. "From now on, whenever we're about to enter any combat situation, you're going to go ahead and start to kill everyone on the other side, even if we haven't moved yet. You can scare them as much as you want. And if anyone can see you, you tell me. If they're an enemy, kill them, but if they're not, tell me without them noticing. And you can stay a little closer, but don't talk to me unless I talk to you." Was there anything else he needed to say? "And if you sense-or-whatever another yokai, tell me."

"I understand, sir."

Ugh. That sounded weird. "Just call me Kanda."

"Okay, Kanda. And if you want, you can call me Allen."

"You're a kid, a beansprout, and a yokai. That's what I'm calling you." There was a slight pause between this and the kid's next reply that he understood. Kanda looked at the other's face but it was now too dark to tell what he was thinking. He got up and began to look for a place to stay for the night. He definitely didn't want to go back to the camp, where Link would probably tell him to get everyone else back.

While Kanda walked, he almost wished the kid would talk more. If he had, Kanda would have instantly told him to shut up, but he still had a faint desire to hear him talk more.

What was he thinking? The kid was just a weapon that Kanda was going to utilize from now on.

Was Kanda cruel to the beansprout? No, he wasn't.

This was all so Kanda could go back to _that_ place.

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: I'm glad so many people are reading this. It makes me force myself to upload a new chapter every day. I just wish I could write better. <strong>

**Flanagan: [to Kimiko] You write to the best of your ability. [To the readers] And if any of this seems like another story you've read, it's not intentional. We're pulling this out of our brains-that-are-tired-from-school to feed your happy fan-minds. We hope you like this story.**


	5. Reasons and Visitors

_Kimiko: Thank you all for waiting for me! I've been busy and I wanted to get this chapter just the way I wanted it._

**Reasons and Visitors**

The next day, Kanda walked back alone to the camp. Well, not counting the beansprout. He had no desire to look around the town for Alma and the others. They would be fine without him, though they would probably come back much later with hangovers, moaning about whatever they did all night. He could care less.

The road was still stained from the battle, though the bodies had been laid in a row on the side to get them out of the way. They would rot there until either the enemy came back to bury them or the townspeople burned the corpses to eliminate the stink. It was more likely to be the second one. That town had seemed like it thrived on visitors and it couldn't have them frightened away by the dead soldiers littering the path.

Kanda ignored these bodies as he always did. From behind him, he heard a faint sound. He stopped, turning to see what it was. Allen was straining to lift up one of the corpses.

"What are you doing, beansprout?" Kanda snapped. The kid faced him, but didn't stop his efforts.

"There's something under this, Kanda. It smells interesting." Kanda had no idea what the yokai was talking about. He continued to watch as the kid finally managed to heave the heavy body aside. He reached for something in the grass that the body had been covering up. Kanda tried to see what it was.

A deck of cards.

"What's so interesting about that?"

Allen held it closer to his face, breathing in the scent like it was a drug. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. "It smells like…Tyki."

"What's that?"

"He's another yokai." Allen explained. "I told you before. I remember him a little." He looked at the cards suspiciously. "The scent is still pretty strong. I think he was in contact with this person not too long ago. Do you want me to look for him? He might know more about why I was in the shrine."

Kanda thought about this for a moment. He shook his head and started walking again. "No. It doesn't matter why you were there. I don't care about your past. But if that yokai comes close, I want you to tell me."

"Yes, Kanda,"

They continued walking until they finally arrived at the camp. Kanda decided it would be best to see if Zocaro was around. The officer would want to know when his entire unit was back from the town. He stalked around the tents, listening for the older man's loud voice. He skimmed through the soldier's tents first, and then went by the officer tents, the supply tents and even the sickbay. Nothing. He stopped and wondered where else Zocaro could be.

"Who are you looking for?" Allen asked quietly.

Kanda glared at him for starting a conversation. "Captain Zocaro. That guy who was talking to the troops yesterday before we went to Cit'tian."

Allen was quiet for a moment, as if concentrating. "He's close. I can show you where his voice is coming from." Impressed, Kanda followed the yokai to a larger tent near the officers' tents. This must have been where all of the officers were, judging by the faint voices he heard. They were probably reviewing the events of the battle and planning for the future based on their strengths. Kanda wondered why he didn't check this place when he started.

He didn't want to stick around because he might be mistaken for an eavesdropper. But he still wondered what they were talking about as he left.

He had almost gotten back to his own tent when he heard the beansprout's soft voice again. "Kanda, I was just wondering. Why are you in the war?"

Kanda thought about this while pretending to ignore the kid. He really had no reason to tell the brat, but for some reason he wanted to. He was almost happy that the yokai actually wanted to know more about him. But he didn't know why.

"None of your business, beansprout."

"Oh." Allen seemed discouraged. "I'm sorry."

Kanda sat down on the ground and pulled his katana out of its sheath. He grabbed a cloth and began polishing the metal. The kid walked around to a gap between two tents and lay down on the grass. Kanda focused only on his katana. He checked it for any dull spots, but it was still as sharp and straight as when he first had it made. He tried to keep all of his attention on his other equipment now, but somehow his mind kept wandering back to the miniature monster about a meter away.

He gritted his teeth. Why did he want to tell Allen about himself? It didn't matter. They were only together to kill people so the war would end. They were both amazing at killing the enemy. His mind thought back to the day before, when he saw the yokai covered in blood, cutting through people like they were nothing. There was something oddly mystical and serene about it. During that time, the kid was only a manifestation of the desire to exterminate.

Kanda tried to think of something else, but he couldn't get the image out of his mind. Finally he did—with the reason he was in the war.

"I'm here because I'm fighting for someone else." Kanda decided it was fine to say it out loud. He would keep the beansprout's curiosity down while he reassured himself of his reasons. "There's a woman at home that I want to protect. I want to keep the war away from her. If I help out in the war, the fighting probably won't get to where she is. And she also told me to join the effort, even though neither of us really gives a damn for the cause."

"What is the cause of the war?" Allen asked.

"I forgot the exact reason. I think it was the king who had an issue with some other king. It's really annoying. Ordering a war for some dumbshit reason that doesn't truly matter to the actual people who are going to be fighting in it,"

"I can see why you want it to end."

"Yeah," Kanda said, leaning back and looking at the dull color of the tent roof. "I just want things to go back to the way they were before. I just want to live quietly, with no wars or fucking kings."

* * *

><p><em>A few days later, while moving to a new camp…<em>

Kanda didn't pay attention to the places they were going whenever they moved. Allen was slightly interested, but he was told by Kanda not to speak to him for any reason while they were on the road. So, even when he faintly felt the presence of two other yokai, he remained silent.

The two yokai could also feel Allen's existence. In fact, they knew him.

From the forest about half a kilometer from the road, the two yokai peered out at the procession of soldiers. One of them looked like a large metallic armored skeleton with six bulbous red eyes. The other was more humanlike, and appeared as a gentleman in a black suit and top hat. They saw Allen almost instantly.

"Lord Tyki, it's that Bloody Clown, Allen," the skeleton said, grinning at the other.

"Yeah," the other, Tyki, said casually. "That little boy we used to have fun with. I guess he's gotten out of that freakish shrine the exorcist sealed him into. Too bad he's still stuck to a human, even though it is interesting that it's a warrior."

"Isn't it just a soldier?"

"No, look closely, Thread. He has a much different aura than the other people. They're all experienced, but he has a whole different feel to him."

"That's pretty interesting."

"What's even more interesting is that those soldiers are probably heading to another battlefield. That means we can see the kid in action again. It's been so long since I last saw him, smeared all over with the pieces of the people he obliterated."

"Why don't we pay him a visit before then?"

* * *

><p><em>Later…<em>

Allen finally decided it was time to tell Kanda about the presence he had felt. The others were all asleep, but the warrior was checking all of his gear for the battle in a few days time. He should be able to make conversation with him now. "Kanda, I wanted to tell you earlier, but we were surrounded by other people. I felt two yokai today."

Kanda stopped. "What? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"You were busy." Allen said. Suddenly he wished he had said it before now.

"That's a stupid reason. So, do you recognize them? When and where was it?"

"Um," Allen thought back, "It was when we were between the forest and the beginning of those big fields. The sun was starting to get lower. One of them is Tyki. The other seems familiar, but I can't put a name down. And they're still close. In fact, I think they're coming closer."

Kanda looked angry or worried. "They're coming here?"

"Yes."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Maybe about as dangerous as me, but they don't feel hostile right now."

Kanda concentrated. He could almost feel something approaching, something like the beansprout. Something uncanny. It was coming straight to him. Well, it was probably something to do with the kid-yokai. He started to have a weird resonating feeling on the place where the kid put the mark of his contract. Kanda clutched at the skin and waited.

Finally, he saw the two yokai. They looked as solid as any human, but at least one of them definitely looked unearthly. There was one that looked like a person in a fancy suit and another that looked like a big skeleton-doll made out of sleek silvery metal. One of them smiled and waved at Allen. The kid turned uncertainly back at Kanda, as if wondering what he should say or do.

"Hey, kiddo," the human-looking one said, "You still remember us? Tyki and Thread?"

Allen bit his lip. "Um, I kind of do, but not really."

"What do you want?" Kanda interrupted.

"Oh, sorry Mister Warrior, I forgot my manners. I'm Tyki, the Black and White Gentleman. I suppose you know I'm a yokai. And this is Thread, the Demon Skeleton. We already know Allen, but who are you?"

"Kanda," he growled. "You can leave now."

"Aww, poor Allen-kid," Tyki said, smiling again at the younger yokai. "I guess you have to put up with this all the time. Hah~, you must be missing Mana, right?"

"Mana?" Allen forgot what Kanda was trying to do in his curiosity. "Who was he? I remember his name but nothing else. Please tell me what you know about me!"

"Oh?" Thread said in a harsh voice. "Does he have amnesia? Do you think it's because of that Cross?"

"Maybe," Tyki murmured. "Well, I won't spoil the surprises for you right now, kiddo. I still want to see what you do from here on, and we only came over to say hi. You know, make sure you're eating right and all that. You have been eating the people you kill right?"

Internally, Kanda was surprised. Yokai are supposed to eat people? Had the beansprout been doing this?

"N-no, I didn't," Allen whispered. "But when I killed them, I did lick up the blood on my claws. And," he faltered, gaining an animalistic expression, "It tasted sweeter than sugar. It was delicious. I wanted more."

Tyki and Thread laughed. "That's more like what you used to be," Tyki exclaimed. "Mr. Kanda should keep an eye on you or you'll get all violent again, just like before. Ah, those were some good times. Well, goodbye you two. Have fun killing people!" They laughed again and sped off into the night, leaving Kanda and Allen full or even more unanswered questions.

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: I deeply apologize for the wait (because I like writing one chapter every day). I had to get my thoughts in order and I really wanted to bring Tyki into the story sooner than I had originally planned. From now on, if I miss a day or two, don't get upset or anything. Please? And please review this!<strong>


	6. Ambush and Slaughter

_Kimiko: This is just me rambling before you read (which you might just skip anyway), but I wanted to mention that I don't use Beta readers. I wonder if I should…but then my updates wouldn't be as fast. And I'm pretty decent with only Flanagan, anyway._

**Ambush and Slaughter**

Kanda was pissed when he saw the two yokai leave. They knew about the beansprout and they didn't want to say anything. He glared in the direction of his yokai, Allen. The dumb kid was just sitting there, while looking like his head was stuck in the clouds. Kanda wanted to go slap the kid out of his daydream and demand to know more about what they had said. But didn't he say he didn't remember? Maybe he would understand more as time went by. Memory loss might be a side-effect of being stuck in a shrine for years.

Had it been years? Come to think of it, Kanda didn't know. Yokai probably lived a lot longer than humans, and the kid seemed like he had lived for a while before being sealed. Still, they must get older somehow, right? Or did he just appear as a child on a battlefield some random day, killing people?

That reminded Kanda of something he wanted to ask the kid. "Hey, beansprout, do yokai eat people? That Tyki yokai said something like that."

"Oh," the white-haired child broke out of his trance and faced Kanda. "Not exactly. Some of the larger, older ones do eat people whole, but that's uncommon. Some yokai don't kill at all. But even for them, if they can smell the heart of a dying person, which holds the remains of a fading soul, they just can't resist it. I was going too fast through the battlefield to really come across that sense, but if a yokai is going to eat anything out of a human, it's usually that."

"A dying person?" Kanda briefly thought of the sickbay tent. Lucky the battle had ended so easily or else it might have filled up with suffering people. The freaky kid might have gone there to feast on these injured. And Kanda wasn't sure if he would leave alone the ones who could survive. He didn't know how much temptation the yokai was going through while waiting for the next conflict in a military encampment. "Were you satisfied with how much you got off the battlefield?"

Kanda wondered why he had just asked that question. There was really no reason for him to worry about the brat's health and happiness, was there? He decided to justify it by telling himself that he didn't want a hungry dangerous monster lingering around.

"Oh, it was great, especially after I spent so much time in that shrine. Blood isn't as good as a heart, but I got plenty of it. And blood tinged with fear of the unknown or the fear of unavoidable death is even better. It's laced with weird but tasty human chemicals. I guess you think it's weird."

Yes, Kanda did think this yokai was weird.

But right now, he couldn't come up with a good reason to sacrifice his rest time to ask questions to the beansprout. He crawled further into his tent and lay down to go to sleep.

* * *

><p><em>The next morning…<em>

The enemy wasn't supposed to arrive at the river for a couple of days. Until then, the soldiers were free to wander around, but were strictly ordered to stay as close as possible to the camp. Kanda was looking forward to a nice long day of relaxing from the marching yesterday. Most of the others had the same idea, though some of them were gathering to play sports or cards.

It reminded Kanda of the deck of cards the kid had found that day after they went to the town. That deck of cards that Allen said smelled like Tyki. Now that he considered it, why would a soldier have something from a yokai? Or did they just play a game of cards together?

Kanda looked over at the yokai, wondering if he would come to any conclusions by just staring at one of the surreal creatures. The kid's eyes were closed and he had his face tilted so it would feel all of the little bursts of wind. White hair blew around his face, brushing over the red mark on his young face. The breezes played with his thin, grayish clothes, making him seem like a pile of ash that might blow away at any moment. It was like watching a tiny silver angel who was about to fly away. Kanda was mesmerized by the sight.

He shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. Why was he thinking like this? It was annoying. Having a beast that could help him kill people to end a war was okay, but the fact that the power resided in a little beansprout was irritating. Even if he didn't talk much, Kanda still felt weird having a child that looked like he was ten years old follow him around wherever he went. The annoyance factor was increased even more whenever Lavi was around. The stupid rabbit hadn't said anything to the others yet, but he would whisper aggravating comments to Kanda, saying that they looked cute together.

Suddenly the kid had moved from his position and leaned towards Kanda. He had the look of a kid who knows a grave secret and wants desperately to tell it to the first person he saw.

"Kanda, there are a lot of people coming near here. They smell like soldiers and they're coming from the direction of that creek at the edge of the camp."

"What?" Kanda breathed. "The enemy?" The kid nodded. "They weren't supposed to come for a while. That means—" An ambush. Kanda's eyes widened. This wasn't good. If the enemy struck now, they would be decimated.

There was no time to get anyone else. Kanda grabbed his katana and rushed out of the tent. He would have to do this alone. If he said anything to the people, who were just playing around right now, there would be a panic. That would just make it easier for the enemy to crush them. He and Allen would have to be enough to drive them back.

"Allen," he said quickly as he ran towards the creek. In his haste, he forgot to call the yokai by his beansprout nickname. "I need you to go all out and help me completely eliminate these guys. I don't care what you do, but you have to kill every single one of them. We don't want any of them to get back, so their friends are confused later. Do whatever you need, but just try to kill all of them as quickly as possible. I'll do what I can too."

The yokai was already shifting into his offensive form. The long, thin, lethal claws were at his side and he was soon faster than Kanda, just like before. Once again, Kanda felt an uncanny sensation inside, what he now realized was the natural human reaction just before encountering a yokai who was out for blood. But this time felt slightly different. Allen's aura seemed even more raw and intense than before. If Kanda could see him, he would see a mad grin on the child's face, which was slightly darkening into a grayish hue.

Kanda had told him to let loose, and he was about to do exactly that. His mind was filled with nothing but the urge to run faster, slice, kill, and see the people perish beneath his hand. Base yokai instinct had consumed him.

The two arrived at the forest-hidden creek and barely saw the hostile troops sneaking across the thin stream of water. They looked up and saw Kanda, but he had a feeling that they felt and feared Allen's presence more. The soldiers seemed to freeze in pure shock and terror at the fearsome unknown shadow that was getting nearer each second.

Allen jumped into the air, and for a second, Kanda watched as he appeared to float, ghostlike. Here was the pitiful soldiers' angel of death. Then the angel descended on the doomed men, silver claws flashing in the filtered sunlight.

When Kanda finally arrived at the scene, all of the people he had originally seen were literally torn to shreds. They could hardly even be called human now. Faces, bodies, clothes, everything was ripped and bloody. The gore leaked into the water. It poisoned the substance that once carried so much life, and determined that all it could carry now were pieces of the dead.

Kanda stopped. He looked around slowly. He couldn't even hear screams. If he listened closely, over the resonance of water trickling over the minced humans, he could only hear something like the faint sounds of blades cutting through meat. Allen's claws cutting though the meat that was once called a soldier. He walked on for a little while, but only saw more of the same mess of wasted life.

Kanda realized now, that what he saw that day at the battlefield was just the tip of the iceberg of Allen's potential. This here, lying all around him, was the yokai's true power. He was a butcher, hidden behind the façade of a young child with an angelic face.

He walked slowly towards the sounds of the slaughter. The words from those two yokai who spoke to them yesterday echoed hauntingly in his head. _"More like what you used to be…Kanda should keep an eye on you of you'll get all violent again."_ This must be the kid's nature. Had Kanda released a monster? He came over the top of a small hill in the forest and saw Allen. It was an awful and awesome sight. Kanda's eyes were glued to the child, killing half a dozen men in the span of only a few seconds. Droplets of blood formed a mist around him, while he moved inhumanly fast. The pinkish mist seemed to follow him around constantly.

There were only a few people left and those were running. They had just seen their comrades brutally cut down without anything to explain it but a dark, bloody shadow. These were given no mercy, sliced by the claws in the same fashion until the forest was finally silent. Allen stood still for a moment, looking around as if seeking more prey. Kanda watched the yokai with a mixture of intimidation and admiration.

As long as the war is over soon, he reminded himself. As long as he could go back, he would use any means necessary.

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: Please review if you think this is any good! <strong>**\****(^o^)/**

**Flanagan: If you were offended, then you can look at the rating again, after pressing the back button.**


	7. Rumors and Questions

_Kimiko: I do not own DGM, and I don't think I'd be the best person to own it either. If Hoshino wanted this taken down, I'd probably cry, then do it because she actually noticed something as miniscule as this._

**Rumors and Questions**

Kanda walked slowly and quietly towards Allen. The yokai might have still been feeling vicious, as he hadn't yet put his bloody claws away. He could definitely defend against any attack launched by the kid, but that didn't mean he wanted to risk unnecessary danger by approaching hastily.

The kid was standing still, but barely shaking. Kanda assumed he might be breathing heavily from the exertion. "Hey, beansprout," he called. Allen didn't answer. Kanda carefully got in front of the kid and looked straight at his face. His eyes were wide and staring at the ground. He looked shocked and Kanda wondered why. Allen was the one who had killed everyone so easily, not he. Why should the brat be nervous about something that he did himself?

But still, there was something about the blank, anxious child face that made Kanda take pity on him. Before he realized it, he had crouched down to look up at Allen's face. His expression remained unchanged. Kanda grabbed his small, frail-looking shoulders and shook them gently. "Beansprout?" he asked, surprisingly tender. "Hey, what's up with you?" Still no change. Kanda suddenly became more aware of his situation. Here he was, the great warrior Yu Kanda, playing concerned babysitter to a monster child. It was goddamned pissing him off.

Kanda rose quickly and smacked the kid's face with the back of his hand. "Hey, I'm talking to you, you fucking beansprout-yokai!"

Allen finally looked up at Kanda, and his arm changed back to normal. His eyes were watering, perhaps from the stun of the impact. "K-Kanda," he whispered. "This is scary. I think I'm changing. It really scares me because it feels right. It feels like I used to do this a lot, before I was in the shrine. What should I do, Kanda? I'm scared that I'm going to be a monster."

Kanda was blown away by this. He could hardly process what the kid had just said. Allen though he was changing and was scared? Kanda had thought that Allen wanted to be back to whatever normal yokai he used to be. He was the one who wanted to get out of the shrine in the first place. He was the one who had offered to fight with Kanda to end the war. And now, he wanted to stay like a little kid? What about the promise he made?

The war could end if Allen did this kind of fighting more. And Kanda could go back to that place, with that woman.

Kanda scowled at the white-haired yokai. Coldly, he said, "Listen: you're just going to fight in the battles and help end the war faster. That's the promise we made in your contract. All I want is to be able to leave this goddamn war, as soon as possible. I don't really care about what happens to you in the meantime, or afterwards."

Maybe it was a little harsh, but Kanda didn't want to get close to the kid. Something felt weird about staying too long around him. Every time he spoke with the beansprout, he had a strange sensation inside.

Allen stared up sadly at the warrior, but soon steeled himself and nodded. What else could he do? As they walked back to the camp, leaving behind the bloody mess of former opponents, he didn't even realize that he forgot about feeding on the people he killed. Instead, he simply stared at the faintly visible chain linking him to Kanda, following obediently and silently.

* * *

><p>It didn't take too long for the camp's afternoon sentries to discover the remains of the attempted ambush at the creek. Within a few hours, the whole camp was abuzz with rumors of what might have happened. No one had seen anyone come back blood-stained or tired from a fight (and once again, Kanda was glad Allen could only be seen by himself and Lavi). Also, the men were still slightly mystified by the extremely easy victory several days ago. Now some of them were saying that supernatural powers were at work, that another army or band of vigilantes was secretly helping them, or that the enemy might be planting such things to get them off their guard.<p>

Kanda thought it was all ridiculous. He sat against a stump near a fire but away from the few other soldiers around, trying to disregard all of the useless babble around him. Even Alma and the others were coming up with random ideas to explain the phenomena.

Kanda sighed and closed his eyes. People always wanted to know everything about what was happening. Sometimes it was best to just lay back and accept the fact that some things couldn't be explained. Like how he had a vicious, child-sized yokai temporarily attached to him, despite how he had never believed in such things until only shortly.

He felt someone poke him and grabbed his katana to behead whoever did it. Lavi narrowly avoided it, holding up his hands in surrender. "C'mon, you don't have to kill me! Can I just say something?"

"I have a feeling that I already know what you want to say, and I don't intend on answering just to satisfy your curiosity." Kanda retorted. He would have left by this point, but he liked the warmth of the fire. So instead, he glared at Lavi, hoping he would leave.

Lavi scrunched up his face. "I'll tell Alma and Daisya and Marie that you talk to yourself, thinking you're talking to a yokai that looks like a cute kid. I'll say that you think it follows you around everywhere and you make it call you 'Master.' I'll say you're actually a pedophile. I'll—"

"Shut up, dumb rabbit!" Kanda snapped. "If you did, you'd be saying goodbye to your other eye."

Lavi protectively held up a hand to his one green eye. "Why not have your yokai do it? I know that he was the one who was responsible for doing that thing at the creek. I saw it myself, Yu, and I know you can't do things like that, no matter a person hates the enemy." Lavi kept his gaze focused of Kanda, waiting for him to admit his actions.

"I have no reason to explain what I do to you, rabbit." Kanda said icily.

"Then I guess I'll have to ask the kid," Lavi whispered in a low tone. He walked a little farther away to where Allen was lying on his back, staring up at the stars. The yokai sat up and stared at Lavi for a moment, then looked back at Kanda, with an uncertain appearance. Kanda cursed to himself. If he tried to tell the beansprout to be quiet from here, then everyone else would notice. If he went over to them, he would have to explain at least some things.

He decided he would go with the second option. Scowling, he sat down next to Allen and Lavi, waiting for the inevitable.

"So," Lavi said brightly, but quietly. "What's your name?"

The yokai looked at Kanda again, who just sighed and rolled his eyes. "Um, I'm Allen."

"Oh, that's cute!" Lavi grinned at Kanda. "You sure know how to choose them, Yu!"

"My name is Kanda, dumbass rabbit," Kanda growled. "You only get four more questions and then I'm leaving."

Lavi's eyes widened in mock fear, and he turned back to Allen, "All right Allen, how did Kanda find you?"

"I was sealed in a shrine and he got me out if I promised to help him end the war."

"That counts as two questions," Kanda said, getting more irritated by the second. "I know that you were going to ask about that. Hey, beansprout, you're only telling him the immediate answer, okay?"

The kid nodded. Lavi pouted. "Fine, then my third-but-counting-as-fourth question is this: what's your yokai title?" Kanda wondered why Lavi wanted to know this, but said nothing.

"I'm the Bloody Clown." Allen was about to say more but remembered Kanda's warning and shut his mouth.

"Hmm," Lavi seemed thoughtful. "Okay, Allen, now the last one." He paused for a moment, considering what he would ask out of the many questions he had. He smirked dangerously. "Do you like Yu?" Kanda immediately grabbed his katana and swung it at Lavi again, but the other nimbly dodged it and sang, "Answer the question~!"

"Why?" Kanda yelled, brushing aside the stares of the people at the fire. "It's stupid and pointless." He watched Lavi's every move with irritation in his eyes.

Quietly, Allen whispered, "Well, even though he sometimes acts mean, I do like him. I think he's really a good and kind person." Lavi almost fell over with laughter. Kanda furiously stormed off. He needed to get the kid away from Lavi's influence. It might be poisoning his mind, and Kanda definitely didn't need another idiot around him.

* * *

><p><em>Meanwhile…<em>

Colonel Howard Link stood at the edge of the creek. When he had first set eyes on the horrible sight, he was almost sick. Even he, an experienced warrior, couldn't help but feel sickened by the inhuman degradation for human lives. But he had realized something as he looked at the remains. It was truly inhuman. Not human, but done by something even more efficient, deadly and brutal.

He had heard rumors, once, of creatures called yokai. They were fearsome monsters, some of which could easily annihilate a city in a short time. He had heard about them when he was going through his officer's training, and had originally dismissed them as mere myths. But now…

Link thought back to the scene of the battle a few days ago. It had been over remarkably soon and each squad had assumed it was the others who had done most of the hard work. He had walked around the field and seen bodies that had far more damage than was usually inflicted by soldiers under pressure. The cuts on the bodies looked much different than ones created by swords. That, compared to this massacre, certainly warranted some interest.

There was something following their regiment around. Link intended to find out exactly what it was.

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko:There seems to be a type of love triangle in here...Well, you know what TV Tropes says: sometimes you have to murder the hypotenuse.<strong>

**Flanagan: You're going to kill a character?  
><strong>

**Kimiko: [decides not to answer that question] Please review!**


	8. Love and Decision

_Kimiko: I don't really want to waste time writing more about random military life or anything, so I'm going to move my plot a little fast._

**Love and Decision**

Almost a week had passed since the failed ambush at the creek. In that time, the soldiers had fought against a significantly smaller, less motivated force. Predictably, they once again decimated their opponents, leaving their victorious side still wondering how. It was intensely confusing to the men. They gladly acknowledged their victory, but most of them were still suspicious. The rumors were taken with much more significance now; superstitions and hypotheses now spread through the camp like diseases. In fact, the soldiers who felt a supernatural force was blessing them were now giving praise to this force every day. Kanda thought it was ridiculous and hoped the beansprout wouldn't react to these dumb suppositions.

Lavi was silent, only watching in awe as he saw Allen in action during the battle. Kanda saw him in his tent one day, muttering to himself about yokai as he lay on his back. He mentioned "Bloody Clown" and Kanda wondered if he was trying to figure out more about Allen. Lavi always did seem to know a lot more than the average person, even if he did act stupid half the time. The other half the time, Lavi was fighting or sleeping (and even then he managed to look stupid).

Kanda didn't care.

Lavi could investigate all he wanted on his own.

He didn't care. Not about Lavi, or the beansprout.

Kanda suddenly realized that he had been telling himself that more and more lately. It was usually when he was thinking about Allen, or when he unconsciously glanced over at the white-haired kid. There was something about him that just made his mind forget everything else. The yokai had some strange serenity about him, even if battle, to which Kanda was drawn. The kid was like an ethereal spirit, too pure for the world that he was in right now. The chain seemed always to spoil the visual image of Allen, sitting quietly while looking into the wind. Kanda almost found it refreshing to watch the beansprout enjoying the gentle breeze and forget the troubles of the war.

But Kanda couldn't forget. He had a reason for being here. He had a desire to go home.

He didn't want to be too close to anyone, not even Alma. Although something deep inside him tried to argue otherwise, he told himself that he didn't want to be friends or _anything_ with anyone at the camp, or Allen.

He still had _that_ place to go back to.

* * *

><p>Kanda was walking through the camp, slightly irritated. He didn't want to stay in his tent because he always ended up staring at the yokai, which just made him more irritated when he realized he was doing it. So he was listening to the various sounds, and appreciating the fact that the camp didn't smell like rotten flesh anymore. Besides the various illnesses that the men managed to acquire, the sickbay tent was usually free of patients. Once again, it was thanks to Kanda's beansprout-shadow that was attached to him.<p>

He was at the edge of the camp now, looking down the road they had taken to arrive. Suddenly he faintly saw something off in the distance. Kanda narrowed his eyes to focus. After a minute or two, he could tell that it was a person running.

Who would be coming? A messenger? It wasn't uncommon, but these usually came in a different fashion. And as he watched, Kanda could tell that the person was a child.

Kanda recognized the child as he came closer. The sentry at the entrance was about to stop the child from entering, but Kanda had already moved to meet him.

"Timothy? Why are you here?" Kanda exclaimed as the child fell down onto the ground, exhausted from running. Timothy was a young boy from his hometown. "Did something happen?"

"Y-yes," Timothy managed to gasp out, panting from the long run, "M…Miss Karma…she got…shot…It was…an accident, but…she's dead…It was…friendly fire…a mistake."

Kanda felt empty. His heartbeat was unnaturally loud in his ears. He stared at Timothy, astounded. He couldn't even ask if the boy was sure. Somehow, it felt so final. Somehow, he knew it was true.

Alma's cousin, the woman he cared so much for, was dead. Killed by friendly fire.

What was he doing now? Kanda stumbled to his knees, still in a state of shock. Allen knelt down next to him and tried to touch him, but Kanda shouted loudly.

"GO AWAY!"

Timothy and the sentry both thought he was speaking to them and quickly left. Allen twitched, and then slowly drifted away, leaving Kanda there to deal with his conflicted thoughts.

* * *

><p>Allen knew he couldn't be too far from Kanda or the spirit collar would start to torture him, but he had at least some room. He definitely wanted to allow Kanda to be alone, though it worried him that the warrior was by himself when he really needed someone else. Allen really liked Kanda and worried about him. That was why he didn't mind going to all the extra effort to completely eliminate the enemy as soon as he could. He didn't want Kanda to risk getting hurt.<p>

When Allen had first seen Kanda coming through the door of the shrine, he thought he had seen an angel, come to destroy the yokai. Kanda was a beautiful and dangerous human. He had an intense, yet graceful aura. He could kill efficiently, but still managed to make it an art form, with that amazing katana. Allen fiercely respected him and wanted to do whatever he could for him.

But Kanda had insisted that he leave him. Allen didn't know what it was like to lose someone you cared about, because he still couldn't remember his life before the shrine. But he had Kanda now, and he figured that if he lost Kanda, he would be very upset too. Right now, he didn't know what he would do without Kanda.

And he had to find a place to wait for Kanda now. Allen looked around. It didn't really matter where it was, but he hoped it could be closer to where Kanda was, so the collar wouldn't hurt him. He could even wait on the ground, but it felt a little awkward. Allen was just about to find a quiet, secluded spot when he heard a familiar voice right behind him.

"Ooo~, Allen!" Lavi said happily. "Where's Yu?"

"He told me to go away," Allen whispered darkly. "He found out that a woman named Miss Karma was shot by accident by his own side."

Lavi was silent, processing this. "Oh, so you're alone for now?" He noticed how lonely Allen looked without Kanda. "Well, if you want, you can talk with me to pass the time."

Allen almost agreed, but remembered something. "Kanda said if I stay around you too much, your stupidity will rub off on me."

Lavi laughed. "Oh, he said that? Well, he's not around right now, he'll never know. There's a quiet place right around the corner. We're just going to talk anyway!"

Allen was dragged off by Lavi, but he didn't really mind. He desperately wanted company, even though he could still feel Kanda through the bond of the contract. And…Allen abruptly felt another presence appear. Tyki.

Mentally, Allen heard something. _"Hey, kiddo, I saw your masterpieces. Great work! They're beautiful! I guess old habits die hard, huh? You know, it's so much easier to cut once your claws are bloody again, right? Once you start killing those worthless humans, it's so hard to stop! It's addicting, isn't it? You enjoy yourself, now. See you soon!"_ Allen shuddered. He knew that he was familiar with Tyki from his faint memories, but he still felt like the other yokai was slightly creepy.

* * *

><p>"Allen, I'm not going to interrogate you or anything." Lavi said kindly. "I just want to know more about you. Just feel free to tell me anything. If you have any problems, I'll be a counselor for you!"<p>

Allen smiled at the man. "Thank you, Lavi. Um, if you want to know…" he paused. "I don't know how old I am, but I do know that I'm a lot older than I look. I don't remember where I'm from, either. But—ah! I do know that I'm actually stronger than a lot of yokai!" he said proudly. Lavi could believe that. "And I can sense other yokai and people who can see them. I can tell if people are coming close to me, or to Kanda. That's how I could tell the ambush was going to happen."

"Wait, you can also sense stuff around Kanda?"

"Yes," Allen explained. "It's because of the contract. I stay bonded to him."

Lavi leaned closer. "So, what you said that last time: was it true? Do you like Kanda?"

The childlike yokai smiled. "Of course I do! He saved me from those ruins."

"No, do you like him even more like that?" He really wanted some gossip material to tease Kanda with.

"What do you mean?"

Lavi wondered how he would ask this to Allen. "Do you think you have a special relationship? Like the one that Kanda had with that lady?"

Allen looked aside for a moment. "I want us to, but I don't think he does. And—" he stopped, feeling something change.

Lavi noticed it. "What's going on?"

"Kanda's coming back. He's looking for me. I gotta go now." He got up abruptly and Lavi hurried after him. They only walked for a short while before they came across the warrior.

Lavi stared at Kanda. He was decidedly different. Before, he had a very apathetic attitude, driven only by a faraway goal. He didn't care about anything but going back home. And he would show it in his attitude and appearance. But now, it was quite unlike before. Kanda was brooding, with a slight faraway look. And he also seemed heartbroken, but the feeling had been suddenly pieced together in a totally dissimilar way. Kanda had changed from the person he was before by this news.

"I've decided," he said quietly. Allen and Lavi listened in anticipation. "I've decided what I'm going to do now, in this fucking war that can go to fucking hell."

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: You know, I really can't see Kanda liking anyone except a guy. It doesn't really matter if it's Allen or Lavi (though I like Yullen better), but it's just so hard to see him with a girl. Allen's the same. And as for Lavi…well, maybe if anyone took him seriously enough, but he's probably better off with a guy too. [Or maybe I've been reading too many slash fics.] <strong>

**Oh, and don't worry too much about Lavi. I don't intend to kill him, but I'm still wondering if I'll pair him with someone…**

**Well, review if you liked it! I'm handing out free hugs while Flanagan isn't here! ****\****(^^)/**


	9. Ambition and Egotism

****_Kimiko: I apologize again. I love writing one chapter every day, but my school does midterm exams later in the year. And all the teachers are trying to load study stuff on us to force us to spend more time with their subject. Yuck. Well, I tried to work hard on this. The next few will be longer. _

_Flanagan: Once again, we don't own any of this, or we'd definitely have DGM chapters come out a lot more often.  
><em>

**Ambition and Egotism**

"The war?" Lavi repeated blankly. "What do you mean? We're going to fight in it, aren't we? I don't think it's going to change anytime soon." He hadn't yet heard the news that Timothy had brought. Kanda recognized that he would be slow on this update.

"Corazón Karma was killed," Kanda shot back. "By our own side,"

"What?" Lavi gasped. "You mean Alma's cousin? Does he know?"

"No…" Kanda decided his own revelation could wait until they found him. It might be better to tell the news to both Alma and Lavi at the same time. They both would ask the same questions. "Let's go find him," he said and led the way through the camp to check on the places that Alma usually frequented: the mess tent, Alma's tent, Lavi's tent, that random space that was always behind the officers' tents. Alma ended up being in none of these places.

Frustrated, Kanda turned to Allen. "Beansprout, can you find Alma?" he asked, remembering now that Allen could locate seemingly hidden people rather well, such as when Kanda had been looking for Zocaro. The yokai hesitated, then closed his eyes and breathed in slowly.

"He's…in that direction," Allen said softly after a moment. He pointed back towards the maze of soldier tents. "I'll show you."

Kanda quickly followed after the kid with Lavi trailing behind, interested in what he had seen. He wondered what else the yokai could do. Well, he knew of several things: the kid could kill, he could sense things, and he could fall in love. Like a human.

* * *

><p>Alma was actually in none of the places he usually went. He was sitting on a stump near the trees, whistling to a bird in the forest. As Kanda and Lavi came near, the bird noticed the extra presences and flew off, startled. Alma smiled cheerfully at his friends.<p>

"Hey guys," he said, gesturing for the others to sit down on similar stumps nearby, which had been made when other soldiers from the battalion cut down some of the dying trees to use as fuel for their cooking fires and bonfires. "It's a pretty nice day, isn't it? Still, it's rare to see you away from the camp, Yu. What are you here for?"

Kanda decided he would cut straight to the point. There was no use lining the truth with sugar. He and Lavi sat down and he stated plainly, "Your cousin Corazón was killed."

Alma was silent for a minute, slowly accepting the fact. His face had fallen and he now wore a look of natural shock. His shoulders slumped and he put his face in his hands. "How'd you find this out?" he managed to whisper, voice laced with hints of sorrow.

"Timothy came. I could hardly believe it too." Kanda explained, almost tenderly. "But the worst part is that he said she was killed in an accident caused by our own side." Alma looked up with astonishment and misery. They silently shared each other's pain, in a moment of mutual understanding.

Alma shook slightly. He gave a pitiful, empty chuckle. "You know, before we left, Cora said she would wait for us to come back. She said she'd wait forever. And now—"

"Now because of this stupid war, and the stupid people fighting in it, she's gone." Kanda followed. The two were silent again. Lavi knew it was best for him to stay silent. Allen naturally was quiet, obedient to Kanda's orders, yet curious as to what he had mentioned earlier. "Actually, I know what to do about this, Alma," Kanda said, his voice strong. "I can't stand this stupid war. It should stop."

"But we _have_ to fight in it." Alma pointed out. "If we hadn't joined the military, we might have been drafted anyway. It's just the way things are right now."

"Yeah and why is it that way?" Kanda snapped. "Who was it who decided our lives? In fact, who was it who decided on this whole fucking retarded war?"

"The king," murmured Lavi. He was starting to see where Kanda might be going with this. He wasn't sure if it was a good place to be going. Alma looked from one to the other in confusion.

"Well, yes," he said. "We don't really have a say in what the king, or his war council, decides. But still, what can we do about it? We're just individual soldiers in one regiment out of many. We don't have the power to overthrow even Commander Link, much less the king of our country."

"Actually—"

"I do," Kanda claimed. Alma narrowed his eyes inquisitively. "You know how we've been winning our battles with hardly any effort lately? And you remember the bodies that were found at that creek? Well, I know what caused it. A yokai."

Alma was disbelieving. "A yokai? Kanda, I know some people are superstitious, but I really don't think it was anything supernatural or otherworldly. It's just luck."

"No," Lavi supported. "Kanda's right. It's true."

"A while ago, I found a yokai in these ruins we passed by, that can slaughter people like nobody's business," Kanda began, hoping that Alma wouldn't think he was crazy. "He's this little beansprout-looking kid named Allen, and he's deadly. He said he would end the war. Since then, me and Lavi have seen him decimate the other side like crazy." Alma still looked doubtful, so Kanda continued. "He's not some random thing I came up with."

"He's real," Lavi added, before Alma could say otherwise. He figured Kanda could use come backing up. "He's actually here right now. I know it seems weird, but yokai only appear visible to people who have a physical encounter with one. Trust me, we're not trying to kid with you."

"No, I could see _you_ doing that, Lavi, but Kanda's too serious for any types of pranks that don't involve a lot of pain," Alma said with a half-smile. "So, you want to get your yokai Allen to eliminate the reason we're having the war, instead of just the other side?"

"Well, think about it," Kanda argued. "If we win, it might last for maybe a few years. Then something else will happen, and the king will insist on another war, or he'll impose taxes on us for the stuff he's lost, or something dumb. War is a stupid, endless cycle. If we get rid of the corrupt king and his officials, we can prevent it from happening, right? And if we have something that can multiply our chances to get there, why not use it?"

Alma and Lavi both considered this for a few moments.

Alma really did want to believe his friend, but it was all so sudden. He didn't want to start a civil war from within the military while a war was already going on. But he did see the aftermath of the recent battles. It was amazing, and it was hard to believe that any person could do such things to the corpses, no matter what kinds of grudges they held. And if this yokai was the one responsible, and he would help them…Well, then it seemed like a plausible idea.

"Well, I'll help you with whatever you want to do, Yu," he said. "I can at least do that, as your friend. After all, it's kind of useless and depressing if we just go back home and Cora isn't there anymore. And," he wavered for a second, "I'll try to believe this yokai stuff too."

Kanda frowned. He glanced over at Allen, who was sitting on another stump. "Beansprout, can't you do anything to make him see you?"

The kid shrugged. "I can, but I don't know if you'd approve. Like Lavi said, a human need a physical encounter with a yokai to see them. That means I would either have to inflict a wound on him, or, um, kiss him." Kanda bit his lip and glared at Lavi as the dumb rabbit snickered at the suggestion.

"We'll just wait on that for now, then," Kanda muttered. "And you don't care if the plan for ending the war is different now, right? It shouldn't matter."

Allen shook his head. "No, it doesn't. It's still fulfilling your wish. I'll do anything as long as it makes you happy."

Kanda noticed the slight longing in the kid's voice. Was the beansprout…attached to him? Could yokai feel like that? Kanda suddenly felt a sense of happiness at the kid's words sweep through him. It was almost like he liked the fact that the kid would do anything for him. No, no, that wasn't what he wanted. Right now, he had decided. He was going to kill the king, to stop any more wars. Kanda would follow that plan no matter what. He could use the kid's loyalty to achieve his ends more easily, just like before, but he couldn't get attached to him.

It would just confuse him more.

He didn't want to know that this sensation deep within him was an attraction to the beansprout.

And why didn't he miss Corazón as much as he thought he would? Didn't he love her? His mind wasn't making any sense right now.

* * *

><p><em>But…<em>

Link decided that was enough. He slowly moved out from the place he had been hiding behind to advance towards the three soldiers. They looked up in alarm as he seemed to materialize.

"Well, I think that's enough pointless plotting for one day," he sneered coldly. "I'm sure it must be fun, but you really should come to your senses now. I'll pretend I didn't hear any of your silly ambitious talk about overthrowing me or the king, as long as you do something for me." The three looked uncertainly at him. Link enjoyed his feeling of power for a moment more.

"I'd like you to hand over your yokai. You won't be needing it anymore, Mr. Kanda."

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: I know, I probably should have given the woman a name in the last chapter, but I had to think up a name. Because she's Alma's cousin, and "alma" means soul in Spanish, I named her "Corazón" which means heart in Spanish. <strong>

**I'm kind of sad that I had to make Link into a bad guy, but his personality is kind of perfect for it. And I'm not sure how I'll fit any TykixLavi into this. Maybe at the end, which will come relatively soon.**

**Please review! (^-^)/**


	10. Soldiers and Leaders

_Kimiko: [sigh] I wanted to get this out earlier in the day/night, but…oh, well. Not like I have anything except exam review (and a stupid essay) to do instead. And you can see where I'm putting my priorities right now. Well, enjoy this whenever you get to read it! I don't own DGM and probably never will. All the rights and whatever belong to Hoshino, and that's where they should stay. She draws those sexy beasts best._

_*This probably has some serious OOC on Kanda's part, but I want this story to go this way…*_

**Soldiers and Leaders**

Kanda glared right back at his commander. He had probably heard everything. But still, it was ridiculous to think that he would just willingly hand over Allen to his stupid commander.

"Are you stupid?" he snapped, forgetting about the problems with insubordination. Hell, he wasn't going to care about the _war_ anymore! Why should he worry about keeping an image in front of this fool who loved to dance for his superiors like a fucking puppet? "What makes you think I'm giving him over, especially to a bastard like you?"

Link leered at him. "I can have you, your friends, and your family hunted to the last corners of the earth. You may think you're powerful, Mr. Kanda, but even you'll get tired of fighting eventually."

"And do you think Allen's just going to go with you?" Lavi added, just as furious at Link's threats as Kanda. Even Alma seemed disturbed by the suddenness. "He could kill you right now and you'd never know!"

"I don't think so," Link said, smirking evilly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small wooden medallion and held it in the direction he assumed the yokai was. "I'm pretty sure he knows what this is, and the special things it can do to yokai." Kanda, Alma and Lavi looked at it in uncertainty. It looked just like a carved wooden necklace with weird symbols carved on it. Kanda turned back to see if Allen knew what Link was talking about.

Kanda's eyes widened when he saw the beansprout's expression. The kid was staring at the medallion in horror, as if it was some poisonous thing that could kill him at any moment. "Hey, Allen, what's wrong? What is it?" The other two looked back, but only Lavi saw his face. Alma assumed it was bad based off his friends' reactions.

"That is—" Allen paused. He trembled, and quickly moved behind Kanda in panic of the thing. He clutched at Kanda's shirt and looked up fearfully. "It's called Innocence. It can kill yokai just by touching us. I can never tell when it's around. It messes up my power. I don't know if I can kill him if he's holding that."

"Innocence," Kanda whispered. He glowered hatefully at it, then at Link. "Piece of shit. It doesn't matter, bastard, I'll kill you myself. I don't have to hide behind a kid to get rid of you."

Link's smirk twitched. "Oh, is that a challenge, Kanda? Is this an attempt at mutiny?"

"No, asshole, it's your death sentence."

The two faced each other off for a few moments. Link smiled like a predator again and said, "I'll be waiting for you in an hour at the center of camp, Kanda," before walking off. Once he was out of sight, Lavi and Alma both grabbed at Kanda, shaking him.

"Do you realize what you're doing, Yu?" Alma said, worried. "This is really sudden, even if you did decide on this now. And are you sure you can beat him?"

"Of course," Kanda declared. "Who do you think I am? I was doing just fine before Allen showed up. I can fight better than anyone here."

"I don't doubt that," Lavi consented. "And this probably would be the best way to get people to notice what we're going to do. But do you think you're ready to start your anti-war thing, Yu?"

"Don't call me Yu. And yes, I'm ready."

Allen felt miserable. If he was just a little more confident, he could have taken care of Link for Kanda, and the warrior wouldn't have to risk himself. And this all felt like it was his fault. But still, he couldn't break his contract with Kanda, no matter what. He would just have to make sure that nothing happened during the fight that might damage Kanda.

* * *

><p>A large crowd had gathered to watch the fight. Some of the soldiers had wondered if it was just practice, others thought it was a game, and a few suspected it might be a challenge. But no one had heard the reason for the fight yet. They didn't need it. It was just more violence that they could watch, as amusement. And this would be high-level violence: between the Commander and Yu Kanda, one of the best men in the whole company.<p>

But whoever won would have the right to brag about how much they were right and the other was wrong. Whoever won would shame the loser. Whoever won would be the new authority.

Whoever won would get Allen.

Neither could afford to lose.

They both held their weapon of choice: the katana for Kanda and a sword for Link. They didn't bother with the traditional formalities associated with a duel. These were two experienced predators, watching the other for any openings or weakness. The crowd grew quiet, not egging on anyone, as this pair was too dangerous for such childish pressure.

Kanda shot forward, holding his katana with both hands but keeping it low, watching to see where Link moved. Link hesitated briefly, judging the best motion, and swept his sword powerfully at Kanda's waist just as he came close enough. Still moving, Kanda twisted slightly, just enough to deflect the blow without losing too much momentum, and used the leftover energy to send another attack back at Link. The commander quickly brought up his sword in a flexible maneuver, and allowed the strike to connect, but not carry. However, Kanda had expected this. Link was trying to copy his own movement, but he wasn't moving enough to carry the entire motion though. There was a weak spot in such an action. Kanda quickly pressed most of his weight forwards onto the attack that Link was still trying to push away. Link was surprised at the sudden closeness, and tried to move his sword, but it was locked behind Kanda's katana. Kanda took advantage of this and swung his fist towards Link's face. It connected, and Link stumbled backwards, almost losing his grip on his sword.

Kanda supposed this might be considered fighting dirty, but in a war like this, there was no such thing.

Once again, he took advantage of Link's confusion. He knew the other man would be trying to put distance between them so he could watch all of Kanda's movements. But Kanda wasn't about to let him do that. He wanted to kill Link as soon as he could.

He held his katana so that it pointed straight at Link, looking for his best opening. Link was still getting his balance back. Kanda slowed down when he was close enough for the sword and katana to comfortably dance their deadly act together. He stabbed experimentally at Link's weakest spot, and watched as Link immediately brought his sword up to get ready to block it. Kanda internally laughed. The commander had fallen for it.

Kanda let go of his katana with his left hand, but kept it near the hilt, so it would look like he was still holding it. He brought the katana down onto Link's blade with all of the strength in his right arm. A shock wave ran through his arm, and, of course, through both of Link's arms. The other man's arms shook like rubber. His eyes widened and he began to realize what was about to happen.

Kanda grabbed the katana with his left hand now. He easily swatted away the commander's sword with his slightly numb right arm and pointed the katana at the man's throat with his left arm. The fight stopped suddenly. The two's eyes locked for several seconds, both full of hate and utter contempt for each other.

Then Kanda dropped his aim and harshly pushed his katana through the center of Link's body, just below his heart.

Link gasped, suspended on the katana for an interminable moment. All around, other sounds of shock were heard from the spectators. Alma and Lavi were amazed.

Kanda pulled the katana out and let Link fall to the ground. He stood above the other's shaking body, sending a fierce, condescending look down at him.

"You're beaten," he growled. It was time now. He looked around at the others gathered around him with a half-challenge in his eyes. "Listen, everyone," he shouted to them. "This is all our leaders are: just a handful of selfish, self-appointed men who only worry about what's best for themselves. They're the reason this whole war started. So let's get rid of them and there won't be another war like this, where we don't even care about the reasons."

About half of the men were nodding, but the others still seemed unsure. Kanda wondered what he had to do to get them to follow his idea.

* * *

><p>Allen desperately wanted to help Kanda more. Here, as he stood next to Alma and Lavi, he had to try to control his urge to jump in and help Kanda slaughter his enemy.<p>

He had finished the fight easily, but he was still worrying about the fact that the man was still alive, even if his life was slowly vanishing. He suddenly caught the scent, the irresistible scent of the dying human heart. Kanda had cut closer than he realized. Allen quivered and he watched the man closely, still aware of the Innocence, but now being called by the temptation.

He was abruptly alarmed when he saw the man reaching slowly into another pocket. This thing...smelled like a gun. That wasn't good at all.

Allen panicked. His mind went blank. He briefly remembered shifting into his yokai form and beginning to swing his claws towards that horrible human who was going to try to unfairly kill his precious Kanda.

* * *

><p>Kanda heard the motion beside him and turned just in time to see Allen leap upon Link, who was trying to get something out of his pockets. He barely saw Alma a few meters away, holding at his arm while staring with a new shock at the scene before him.<p>

He watched as Allen literally tore the man to pieces. Link shrieked in horrible agony as he felt his whole body rapidly whittled away by the merciless claws of the yokai he had tried to ruthlessly acquire. Allen didn't even pay heed to the Innocence around the man's neck as he killed him. Kanda watched in a fascinated revulsion as he watched his former commander die at the hands of the childlike wraith.

He had not seen Allen do this so close to him. Before, it was always the aftermath that he saw. But now, he and everyone in the camp watched as Link fell victim to the same treatment that their enemies had been dealt with recently. Finally, there was silence. Allen crouched over the body and slowly licked at the blood staining his claws, the dove them into Link's almost-still chest. He pulled out some disgusting shred, the bloody remains of some organ.

Kanda realized what Allen was about to do and turned away before he saw it. Before he saw the small yokai eat Link's heart. That grotesque "delicacy".

Kanda took this moment to shout at the men around him. "You see what happened to Link! There's a reason for all of this! I have a promise of protection from a yokai. It will kill anything in our way. With it, we can be unstoppable! The other side will fear us and we can eliminate anyone who tries to stop us! Now, do you want to join me and we can end the war? Or are you going to try to stop me?"

There was no debate. As one, the men began to proclaim their support for Kanda. Lavi could see that some of them actually believed in Kanda's promise. A few were just terrified of the display they had just seen, and Lavi couldn't blame them. It was horrifying, and he could imagine the terror of all these people who hadn't seen exactly what Allen was. And as for him and now Alma—

He looked sideways at Alma, who was still staring in horror at Allen, who was now sitting docilely near Kanda, like a bloody white cat.

But all of the shouts were drowning out anything he might say to Alma right now.

"Kanda! Kanda!"

"We'll make you our General!"

"We'll make you the Dictator!"

"Kanda! Kanda!"

And Kanda was just soaking it in.

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: I think I made Kanda a lot like Jack from <strong>**Lord of the Flies****. It wasn't really intentional. It's just this chapter that'll make it seem like that. And I'll try hard to put in some better Yullen in the next chapter. But please remember: this was rated M for the blood and gore, not for the relationship. So please don't get mad or anything if you're disappointed that I don't write as much as you might want.**

**Flanagan: Also note that Kimiko's going to be having her senior exams next week. If she does update as often as she has been lately, then she either has a bit of extra time, she has an easier exam the next day, or she's not taking them seriously. But she's going to have a hard time getting anything out on the 16****th**** and 17****th****, because of her studying. Afterwards, it might be a little faster…maybe.**

**Kimiko: I'll try to finish this soon (I wasn't planning on dragging it out too long). I don't want to make you wait too long. And thank you all so much for your reviews (I love you so much)! They make me want to write more!**


	11. Goals and Means

_Kimiko: I almost died yesterday. I felt like such a traitor to you all because I didn't put up anything new, though I did work on developing some ideas._

_Flanagan: Even though I keep telling her she shouldn't feel the need to upload a new story every day._

_Kimiko: But it's what I've been doing up till now!_

_Flanagan: Just take a break or I'll put a virus on your computer. It's for your own good. And make sure you get some real sleep, too._

_Kimiko: To the amazing people who reviewed: I realize that Kanda was really out of character last chapter, but I'll explain it further in here [basically, he was worried about Allen]. Even though he sees him as a weapon, Allen is a really cute weapon, like the companion cube in Portal, but he actually does stuff, like mass murder. Kanda will start calling him beansprout again, because he's still stupid about people, even though he is a genius in battle. And I still don't have any rights to DGM. _

**Goals and Means**

That night, Allen sat outside Kanda's tent even though the warrior had left in favor of Link's. Kanda had determined that Link, whose remains had been covered by a sheet of cloth, would no longer need it. He had already been put in command of the troops who all swore to contact the other regiments in order to spread the word of his plan. The other groups had heard about the annihilation the soldiers had wrought, and were more than a little admiring and scared of their power. They should follow soon, as long as Kanda could convince their enemies to fall back. That too would not be too much of a challenge, as they were absolutely terrified of them.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly for Kanda, and he had told Lavi to organize everything, saying, "I sure as hell don't want to lead. I'm just going to kill the fucking king."

Through all of this, Allen was silent, watching the proceeds. It amazed him how much the simple act of killing a human could change a whole group of them. He didn't really mind if Kanda was changing a little bit, because he felt a slight change within himself too.

Now, even though it sent him some pain through the chain and collar, he wanted to be in a quiet, familiar place to think. He wanted to be able to figure out what to do in his position right now.

Because, he was starting to recall his memories.

Yokai didn't just enjoy the sensation of consuming a dying human heart. Doing so gave them a swell of euphoria and power. He hadn't mentioned that to Kanda earlier because he thought that he might be able to regain his memory if he found a heart on his own. But recently, he had begun to think that it might be better if things stayed the way they were. He liked being around Kanda. He enjoyed following him and watching the little habits he had: how he always took care of his katana, how he said he hated the food served at the camp and always got the same soba from a cook named Jerry, how he would sit silently and meditate, how he pretended to dislike everyone but didn't mind Alma and the others talking to him, and how he was like a vicious, beautiful angel in battle.

Allen was addicted to the sensations he felt while he was around Kanda, be it the rush of a conflict, or his intriguing actions that set him apart from the rest. The warrior's very aura, which was so complex yet so effortless, made him want to spend every moment around him. He could almost thrive off Kanda's presence.

He knew that he loved Kanda and he truly wanted to be with him, all the time. He wanted to help Kanda achieve his goal, because there was something special and pure about his simple desire to end the war. Allen was perfectly fine with simply following Kanda to help him, because it helped both of them.

But right now, there was something else in the picture. His yokai memory. He was gradually remembering who he was, what he had done in his past, and why exactly he had been in the shrine. He knew the significance of those names he had remembered.

And, his yokai desires were returning as well.

The desires to gain the maximum power from his situation, by means of Kanda's own desire.

* * *

><p>Looking back on the other day, Kanda wondered why he had acted like that. He definitely didn't feel like saying those things normally. This was confusing, irritating, frustrating, and just damn annoying! Why would he do that? Was he just caught up in the moment? But what moment was that?<p>

Kanda thought about the events that led up to the point he was at now. They all seemed to involve that beansprout-yokai in one way or another. So, was that the source of his frustration right now?

He gritted his teeth and clenched his katana tightly. He had done all of that yesterday because that stupid kid couldn't deal with Link when he asked him to. In fact, Link had come over to them because of the brat in the first place! And he, Yu Kanda, like an idiot, had gotten all worried and protective over the dumb shitty kid and landed himself in a troublesome leadership position! He hadn't enlisted as an officer for a reason! He couldn't stand leading people. They were annoying as hell!

Especially little kids! Never mind the fact that the beansprout didn't act like a kid. No, he usually acted like a weapon, one that had some emotions, but still a weapon.

That's all Allen was, a weapon. One that he would use to achieve his goals.

He fully intended to make the yokai do all of the work from now on.

* * *

><p>The anti-war faction grew by the thousands each day. Kanda was mostly the figurehead of them all, with Lavi and Alma organizing the groups that joined them. More people joined than the two had originally expected, even from groups that had at first seemed loyal to the king. It seemed like no one really cared for the war after all. As they marched towards the capital all the messages that were sent to their troops expressed admiration, support and promises of future loyalty. Hundreds of soldiers came to them to join their ranks.<p>

As for the former-enemy, after only a few more "battles," they quickly retreated to their own country. During these, Kanda only sent Allen to the fields and his troops watched in fascinated revulsion as they watched an eerie shadowlike thing shoot across the battlefield, eradicating the foes in what seemed like mere minutes. The enemy was all too willing to promise Kanda that they would never invade again and left in a hurry. And the faction continued to move towards the capital.

Several messengers had been sent from the capital, but Kanda would always coldly order Allen to attack them, but leave them alive enough to return to report to the king.

Allen would accept any order that Kanda gave him, faithfully carrying it out. Lavi and Alma worried about this. The two had seemed like they were getting close before, but after the incident with Link, they were both so indifferent towards each other. They wondered about this for a moment, but finally decided it would do little good to speak to either about it. Kanda would never give an answer and Allen hardly spoke to anyone, again on Kanda's order. Besides, the relationship right now was working for the goal that Kanda and the rest of the anti-war faction wanted.

And, really, everything was going much more smoothly than anyone could have expected.

* * *

><p><em>The night before the planned invasion of the capital…<em>

Kanda sighed again. He hated waiting. But Lavi had told him it would be best to wait until morning to attack the capital, so that their troops could rest.

He sat on a hill overlooking the capital city. The lamps inside barely illuminated it, but still made it look like a nest of dying stars. Not like he really cared. It would be full of soldiers and skirmishes tomorrow. It would be swarming with his followers, out for the blood of anyone loyal to the king. They had passed, on their way here, hundreds of refugees from the city, fleeing from the battle that was inevitable. Kanda had noticed the fear in their eyes and it was making him question himself now.

Was he wrong? Would this really change anything?

It was annoying asking himself questions. No one would answer them for him, and he would have to think up some response to keep himself satisfied. Kanda looked around for someone he could ask, but not someone who might say something fucking retarded.

The only one around was Allen, sitting about seven meters away and looking up at the night sky. Kanda frowned, but realized that the yokai was probably the best one to ask if he expected a serious response. And he wouldn't gossip to anyone either, like Lavi.

Kanda turned back to the city so he wouldn't have to look at him. "Hey beansprout," he called out.

"Yes?"

"Once the king dies, things will get better, right?"

There was a pause. "That'll complete your desire. The war that the king caused will be over."

Kanda rolled his eyes. He did NOT want to say his question directly. "That wasn't what I asked, dipshit yokai."

"Oh. Um, I'm not sure what will happen to this country once the king is removed. I suppose it would need a new king, and you could make sure that it's a much better one than last time. Or, I guess, it could be ruled differently."

"Will it be better?" Kanda asked again, leaning back and looking at the endless stars above him. "Will it all change this fucked-up place?" He waited for a response. Suddenly he felt the kid coming closer to him. He looked to his side and saw that the beansprout was now lying right beside him, almost touching. Kanda stared right into his silvery eyes, framed on one side by the red mark. The two silver orbs seemed so innocent and alluring. He didn't even think of telling the kid to move away and lost himself in them.

"I think you'll be able to change the country for the better, Kanda," Allen whispered. "I think you're the type of person who can definitely make this country a better place. I believe in you."

Kanda closed his eyes. That was all he wanted. He rolled onto his back, glad of the feeling of serenity around him. Now that those doubts had been smoothed out, his mind was free of any other problems. He could do what he like best: nothing.

At least, until tomorrow. Then he could do another thing that was easy: killing people. He could focus his entire mind on the simple mindset that he needed to kill the king.

* * *

><p>Allen listened to Kanda breathing for a few minutes. In just a few hours, Kanda would fulfill his wish. He would be able to declare the war ended. Then, Allen could officially conclude the contract. Then, he would be able to break the last of the seal. He reached up to touch the place on his face that showed the red mark, the remains of the hateful seal. In reality, this was the thing that still bound him to be so powerless. The collar and chain only stated that he was bound to a contract to a human.<p>

Contracts were simpler to break than seals. They were made willingly to a simple human, not imposed by an exorcist. But the power that came from _fulfilling_ a contract was great enough to remove the seal himself, no matter how strong the exorcist who had made it. And with all the humans he had killed, whose dying hearts he had touched, he would easily be able to do it. He would never let Cross seal him again.

Cross. Allen scowled as he remembered the events leading up to his imprisonment in the shrine. That man had gone too far. It wasn't really _Allen's_ fault that Mana died. It was that other thing, the thing within him, the thing that killed Mana and made Cross seal him. The thing that _WASN'T _Allen, but helped Allen so much.

It was the thing that told him now to forget about his feelings for Kanda and just follow his yokai instinct, to choose himself over Kanda.

It was the second personality of the Bloody Clown: the Fourteenth.

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: Did I rush this? I really didn't want it to be dragged out because I think too many battles would be repetitive. I don't want to bore anyone, but I don't want you mad either because you might abandon this. <strong>

**Flanagan: Don't worry, because there are still a few more surprises until the end.**


	12. Usage and Conclusion

_Kimiko: I won't waste much space here rambling. Here's the next chapter! [Disclaimer—DGM is the property of Katsura Hoshino and if you want to support her, buy the manga or anime, like I do.]_

**Usage and Conclusion**

Kanda's eyes snapped open and he pulled himself into a sitting position. He stared at the walls of his tent for a few seconds. They were still dark, meaning it was still night. But he could tell that morning would come soon. There was something in the air, apprehension maybe, which was foreshadowing the events of the day ahead of them. The lack of sounds, the stillness, the darkness, and the entire atmosphere of the camp on the outskirts of the city was all pointing to the future of that day.

Nature itself was waiting for the inevitable battle.

But Kanda hated waiting. He got out of his tent and scowled at the horizon, which wasn't even faintly light. Still, he felt like it was time to start. He walked over to the tent nearby, Alma's tent and kicked at the wooden post that held it up. After a few seconds, Alma's head peeked out of the folds. His hair was messy but his eyes were alert as he looked up at Kanda.

"Get ready," Kanda snapped. "We're going to start the attack soon."

* * *

><p>Kanda didn't pay much attention to the plans Alma and Lavi made for him. After listening for two minutes, he lost his patience and shouted at them to make it as simple as possible. They debated among themselves for a while after this, but eventually came up with the modified plan to report to him: He would send Allen through the city just to make a clear path to the palace. Then one half of their forces would proceed to the palace, led by Kanda, Lavi and Alma. The other half would secure the city. Once they got in the palace, Kanda could do whatever he wanted to find and kill the king.<p>

It was simple enough.

Before they started anything however, Kanda stopped and quietly addressed the yokai. "Beansprout, listen. Don't overkill the people in the city. Just make a path for me. And once we're at the palace, don't do anything unless I tell you, got that?"

"I understand."

Kanda nodded grimly, but internally, he was already starting to anticipate the adrenaline rush of a battle. He knew the next few hours would seem like minutes, especially because they were confident of a victory.

The troops started for the city just as dawn was breaking. Kanda didn't bother looking at it. It was pointless staring at the sky, or anything you couldn't control, for motivation. He gripped his katana, which was all he needed to be confident. It wasn't some obscure concept. It was a weapon, and he could expertly use it to kill people. Like the beansprout.

Only, there was still something about that boy he had picked up from the ruins that was different. It wasn't just the fact that he was a yokai, or a child, or a silent follower. He was—different, somehow. Kanda didn't know the words to describe it and wished he could get to the city faster so he could stop thinking about this. Still, thinking about Allen, no, the _beansprout_ was almost…nice. It gave him both a sense of peace and a weird, agitated feeling inside. He didn't think that he had ever felt like this about Corazón.

But didn't he love her? Was this really a different feeling? And was it a good thing?

Kanda became increasingly annoyed with each question. He couldn't figure out those stupid problems in his head, and it definitely wasn't the time to ask anyone. He glared at the gates, willing to be closer each passing second. To clear his mind, he filled his thoughts full of ideas of what he would do to the king when he found him. That occupied him for a while.

Finally they reached the city gates. Kanda glanced over at Allen. The yokai smiled at him, his face once again looking like a cherub's, the red mark perfectly framing one side. An instant later, he was wrapped in that strange grayish cloak again and the sleek, lethal claws protruded from the folds. He ran up to the enormous doors and shot a white ribbon-like thread towards the top of the wall. It pulled him upwards and he disappeared over. Kanda wondered how soon it would be before the defenders realized they couldn't just hide behind the door.

Lavi's voice cut into his inner amusement. "Did you want to say anything to them?" He gestured to the mass of soldiers behind them, all anxious to rush through the capital and take out their frustrations. Kanda gazed across the crowd. They looked at him like a leader.

Right. Like he was a leader. Kanda almost laughed at the idea. He shook his head.

"Why? All we're doing is clearing out trash."

It didn't matter if they expected him to lead him. They could do whatever the hell they wanted to. All he wanted to do was kill one person. Well, it'd be great stress-relief to kill some other people too, but his goal was the king. Afterwards, he could finally live peacefully.

The gates were finally forced open. Kanda let go of all complicated thoughts and simply moved his body, relying now on instinct.

* * *

><p>Staying true to Kanda's instructions, Allen only drove aside the defenders in the route to the palace. He paid careful attention to how much power he was using, to avoid going out of control. He wasted no time in making the path for the humans who would be coming along soon after him.<p>

He could hardly believe that in a few hours, it would all be over. The time he had spent with Kanda seemed so short. Although he was glad he would finally be free of the seal, he was reluctant to give up the contract. But he had to. It was the natural order of things: once the promise was completely fulfilled, the yokai had to end the connection to the human as soon as possible, or risk losing the energy that came with the conclusion of it. Allen did want the power to break Cross's seal, but he didn't want to have to say goodbye to Kanda.

He suddenly realized that he had slowed his movements and quickened his pace again. He had to focus on what he was doing at the moment, for Kanda. But it still was hard to remove the warrior from his thoughts.

Out of the blue, a tremor ran through him.

A yokai-based tremor.

Allen halted for a brief moment, allowing the man he had just stabbed to limp into a nearby building. Blood dripped from his claws as he heard the voice resonating within his body.

"_Good morning!"*heart*_

Allen grabbed at his forehead, groaning in pain. The seal felt like it was in fire and the collar was starting to constrict, blocking off his air flow.

No. Not now. Not here. He still had things to do.

* * *

><p><em>An hour later…<em>

Kanda walked casually through the door to the palace. The city was pretty much in their hands now. All he had to do was find the goddamned son of a bitch and cut the shit out of him with his katana. "Which way is the king?" he growled to the yokai by his side. The beansprout closed his eyes, concentrating, and pointed down a hallway.

"Do you want me to lead you there?" he asked quietly as Kanda set off in the indicated direction.

"No, just tell me where to go next," Kanda replied. He wanted to be the one to walk up to the king, tell him he was a bastard and kill him. He didn't care who followed him as long as he was the one who got to cut up the spoiled-rich face.

They walked down the hall for while before Allen stopped and motioned towards a painting on the wall. Not questioning the yokai's senses, Kanda swept his katana through it to reveal a hidden passageway behind. He smirked. So this was where the stupid and arrogant king thought he could hide. He entered the narrow tunnel and followed it for a few minutes. It was pitch black, but he knew where everything was, every turn and step, by the simple flow of air.

They reached a door and without hesitation, Kanda pushed it open.

Beyond was a well-lit room, and within were a middle-aged man and a young woman, who was on the edge of panic at the sight of Kanda. The man held a shiny gun, but he was holding it wrong. It seemed as if he had never held a weapon before in his life. Kanda didn't remember who the king was called. The man sputtered some nonsense at him, waving the gun like it would immediately convince Kanda to leave.

Kanda laughed. This was the person who had caused so much suffering and pain to hundreds of thousands of people, who he would probably never know. This _thing_ was trying to avoid pain for itself by claiming more baseless threats. It was ridiculous. This creature before him had to be the lowest human on the face of the earth. He didn't even deserve to hear Kanda's reasons for killing him.

Kanda looked coldly down on the two people cowering before him, unsheathing his weapon. He raised his katana high and swept it in a powerful arc, cutting deep into their bodies. But he barely felt the blade as the fragile, noble bones tried to resist being broken by the blow. He didn't even hear the high-pitched screams from their lips, the sharp whirring of the blade through the air or the dull splatter of blood on the floor. He could only glare at the two in hatred, fury pounding in his ears as he pitilessly executed them.

* * *

><p><em>Meanwhile…<em>

The young woman dressed in odd purple-and-black clothes stood maybe an hour away from the city. She had pale red-orange hair that barely reached her shoulders and deep red eyes that reflected the scene before her. She could see the smoke rising from it and shivered, even though the day was warm. She knew what was happening there, just like everyone else in the country.

But she still had to go there. She had made a promise.

Steeling her nerves, she whispered to herself, "It's there isn't it, Master Cross? One of the Fourteen Millennium Yokai, Allen the Bloody Clown." She felt a pang of sadness as she remembered the last time she had heard that title said aloud. That time, back when she was a little girl, when she watched her exorcist master seal away the monster that had killed all of those people, even her family.

"Don't worry, Master," she said, louder, "I promised you that I, Fou, would take care of everything the next time a Millennium Yokai caused trouble. I'm stronger now, strong enough to take on the yokai who almost bested even you. No yokai can beat me now."

She reached instinctively into her pocket, where small green shards were glowing faintly and smiled at the city, where her prey was waiting.

* * *

><p><em>Kimiko: I'm so sorry you had to wait for this. I tried hard to make it good for all you awesome people who read and review this. Thanks for supporting me.<em>


	13. Contract and Seal

_Kimiko: I can finally update faster, because I'm done with exams (they suck). Enjoy and please read the author's note at the end of this!_

**Contract and Seal**

The two bodies on the floor were silent and unmoving now. Blood still slowly leaked from the deep cuts and from the tip of Kanda's katana, but otherwise, the room was motionless. Kanda didn't know how long he stood there, staring without thinking. He wasn't angry anymore. He wasn't happy either. Who would be happy looking at such a disgusting sight? This was just a miserable end to the lives of two pitiful people. It was an extremely anticlimactic way to end a war.

Wait, the war _was _going to be over, wasn't it?

Kanda snapped out of his contemplations and turned on his heel back to the dark corridor. He wanted to be out of that place before it began to smell like corpses. And he also wanted to do something to get the strange empty feeling out of his chest. Killing the king hadn't been anything near as gratifying as killing an enemy soldier. At least then, you could see the fight in his eyes. You could see fear, confusion, anger, determination, pride, confidence. You could see that they were living in the fight. They belonged in the battle, and it didn't matter whether they were smoothly integrated into such a lifestyle or panicking while drowning in it.

Whenever Kanda saw such people, he felt right. He felt like a proper warrior, killing them in a simple display of proving that the stronger will win. But the king and that woman were nothing. They didn't even deserve to have their blood on the same katana that had killed so many perfect soldiers.

So now Kanda wanted to go to find someone worthy of his time and skill, have a real fight with them, and purify the katana's harmony. He exited from the passageway, looking around in an odd hunger for battle. He listened for the sounds he was seeking and caught them back down the hall he had come through to get to the passage. Kanda shot off with a dark smile on his face.

But when he arrived at the main hall, he only saw Lavi, Alma and a few other soldiers. He stopped and looked around for a fight, but there was none.

Apparently, the battle in here was over.

Damn the motherfuckers for being so fast. What was he supposed to do now? He had a lot of frustration and no one to vent it out on.

Lavi and Alma noticed him steaming and hesitated before walking over to talk to him. "Kanda," Lavi said, careful not to use his first name as it might earn him a death sentence, "The battle's pretty much over. Do you know where you want to go from here?" He really didn't know how to ask Kanda to take over in the place of the king. "Oh, and you did get the king, right?"

Kanda crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, scowling. "Yeah, I killed him. He's just filthy shit on the floor of some dirty-ass corner of this hellhole. And I don't care if the battle's over. I want to fight someone else." He glared at Lavi, as if challenging him.

Alma wanted to relieve the tension before anything dangerous happened, but he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Allen was almost pacing and seemed to be unsettled. That reminded him of something important. "Hey, Yu, what was the promise you made with Allen, again?"

Kanda stopped fuming for a moment to think clearly. "Oh yeah," he muttered. "I guess the war's over now." He looked at the yokai beside him, who appeared to be anxious about something. "Am I supposed to do something to end the contract, beansprout?"

Allen nodded. "You just have to touch my hand and say, 'My contract is complete.' It's not difficult, because we didn't make a complex contract to begin with."

Kanda figured this was reasonable. All he had to do was that, and it would all be over.

Over? That meant that Allen would be done. His contract would be finished, so the beansprout would have no reason to stay with him any longer. But that was a good thing, right? He had his own things to do, like finding someone he could fight with and still enjoy it. And the kid probably had things he would rather do, instead of following him around.

But over all this time, Kanda felt like he had grown attached to him. Allen was a calm, peaceful shadow that would be quiet when he wanted silence, answer questions when Kanda didn't want to ask anyone else, and listen when he was speaking. He was serene, even in battle when death would follow closely behind the child-yokai. He was actually rather attractive, with his odd white hair and young face, making Kanda wonder what he would look like in six or seven years, if yokai aged at all. Kanda somehow liked knowing that the kid was always following him.

And it all added up to the fact that Kanda really didn't want to say goodbye to Allen.

But what could he do now? The kid had made a promise with him only to help him end the war. Nothing beyond that. As a warrior, he ought to uphold his end of the bargain and release the yokai from the contract.

Kanda slowly held out his right hand towards the small figure before him. Allen reached for him too, with his left. Their hands touched and Kanda simultaneously felt happy and lonely. He grasped Allen's hand tightly and craved the sensation he was experiencing. Even though it was just his hand, Allen felt soft and warm, just like a child would be, but also otherworldly and fleeting.

'_He is a yokai, after all,'_ thought Kanda. Then he said, clearly, "My contract is complete. You can do whatever you want now." Allen smiled happily at him and Kanda's chest hurt. The kid was glad that he could leave. Maybe he had been a jerk to him these last weeks, as they were on that stupid campaign, all to kill a useless person in a rat's nest.

"Thank you," Allen whispered and Kanda felt him squeeze his hand. Then a strange feeling came across his skin, as if it were crawling. Kanda reluctantly let go of Allen's hand to put his own palm over his heart, where the strange tattoo-like mark had been since he made the contract with the yokai. He was sure that the mark was disappearing, as a sign that the bond between him and Allen was now breaking.

As for Allen, the ghostly chain and collar around his neck had disappeared, though the odd red design across his face was still there. Kanda was confused for a moment. He had thought that was the mark of the yokai's contract, not the chain (though the latter did make sense). Was it just facial decoration?

He discarded these thoughts. There was no point to them, especially if Allen was leaving now. And he wanted his last memories of the bean to be free of pointless internal questions.

Kanda, Alma and Lavi watched Allen, wondering if he would disappear, or walk away, or do something extravagant, like transforming into something different. But he just smiled even more brightly and repeated, "Thank you so much, Kanda. I hope you're happy now."

'_No, I'm not happy. Because you're leaving.'_ But still, Kanda didn't say anything. He sighed and closed his eyes, waiting for Allen to leave.

Lavi and Alma's eyes widened as they saw Allen's skin suddenly darken. He blinked and his eyes turned golden, while seven stigmata appeared on his forehead. His grayish cloak materialized on his body, but it was now speckled with red blots that looked like bloodstains. His smile looked a lot more eerie.

And that weird red mark that once plagued his facial features, that they had wondered about, was gone.

* * *

><p>Fou ran towards the large building at the center of the city. Only a little farther and then she would be there. She could already feel the yokai aura growing darker, more sinister. She prayed that she would make it in time to stop it from rampaging again.<p>

She forced herself to run even faster, her eyes never leaving the castle, not even to look at the destruction the yokai and the dissenting soldiers had wreaked throughout the once-beautiful city. Fou kept her sight on the goal. She had to get there as soon as possible.

She would eliminate the Fourteenth Millennium Yokai, the one who would spread chaos over the world.

The one who had caused the death of Cross.

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: Oh no. I really didn't mean to kill Cross, but it seemed to fit. And if any of you are wondering, I'll explain the back story in a bonus chapter at the end of this story. It'll talk about what happened with Allen, Mana, Cross, Fou, Tyki, the Earl, and the rest, before this story happened. If I get enough reviews asking for it, then I'll write it. <strong>


	14. Red and Black

**.**

**..  
><strong>

**Red and Black**

The eerie smile did not fade from the face of the Earl, the First Millennium Yokai. He and every yokai in the country could feel the dissonance throughout their bodies, the marvelous ripples of raw energy being released as the Fourteenth awoke. Just like that time years ago, except he wasn't seeing it for himself. It would have been quite a spectacle to see, but he didn't want to rush things, like that time when the exorcist Cross intervened.

The Earl was far from the city, as he knew that an exorcist would probably sense what was going on. Come to think of it, it was probably that hot-headed disciple of Cross, that daughter of Edgar Chan Martin. She was the exorcist who had been most active recently. The Fourteenth might face a challenge when he completed his awakening.

Sighing in both happiness and resignation, he turned to look at the group beside him. "Road, Tyki, would go like to go watch dear Allen for me? Don't interfere with him. Just make sure that no one else interrupts him. I want to see him, but I don't want a repeat of last time."

Road, a short girl yokai with spiky black hair wearing a Gothic Lolita dress, grinned and hugged the Earl tightly from behind. "Sure, Earl! Anything for you and our cute little brother!" Her skin grew dark and seven stigmata showed up across her forehead. "I've been pretty interested in him since last time!"

Tyki smirked dangerously too. His complexion also changed to mirror Road's. "Yeah, I want to see him too. Last time, he was getting along pretty well. I think the Fourteenth is taking over much more completely this time. And it helps that he contracted with a guy who was in the war. It'll awaken his inner self pretty easily."

"All right, now go you two," the Earl ordered. A door opened before them and the two yokai walked casually through. It shut and the Earl longingly looked in the direction of the city, tears starting to flow down his cheeks.

"Master, you're crying," another yokai said. She had the same gray skin and stigmata, and long dark hair tied in a ponytail. "I thought you wanted to see the Fourteenth."

"I do," he said, trying not to leak any more emotion through his voice. "But it'll be so sad what happens afterwards, won't it? So many people will die. It makes me so happy I can't control myself. I can't wait to see him, my dear, dear Fourteenth Millennium Yokai, Allen."

* * *

><p>Kanda felt the weird vibrations in the atmosphere and snapped his eyes open. Allen was different. Not just in appearance, but the impression around him was just too off. He stood next to Alma and Lavi. Suddenly a huge gust of wind started flowing around the kid. It formed a sphere around him and he started to laugh, jarringly. The earth itself seemed to protest the sound. It rumbled, spreading an aura of fear through the few people still around. Some of them tried to run, but their limbs refused to move, out of some natural reaction to such a wrong feeling.<p>

"What the hell is happening?" Kanda yelled above the noise to Lavi and Alma.

"How should we know?" Alma shouted back. "Shouldn't you know what he's doing? You were the one who made the contract!"

"I don't think this is from the contract!" Lavi exclaimed. "Remember he said he was sealed? Maybe this is leftover from that!"

Suddenly the noise stopped. Allen stood on the ground about three meters away, still not looking like himself. "That's right, Lavi," he whispered, smiling like he was about to kill them in some sadistic way. "Cross sealed me twice. Kanda broke the first one in the ruins, but I needed yokai energy to break the second one, which was much stronger. To do that, I needed more power. It just so happens that when a yokai completes a contract, they absorb tremendous energy from nature, as a sort of compensation for helping a lower being and such." He chuckled darkly, which was very bloodcurdling coming from such a small, charming form. "That power was just enough for me to break it. And all of those humans I killed just helped even more. They made this awakening much smoother than last time, when I killed Mana."

Allen stopped smiling and broke into a frown. "No, it wasn't me who killed Mana. The Earl gave me no choice—"

"Oh, you killed Mana all right!" A new voice came from the direction of the doors. Everyone looked and saw a young red-headed woman in purple and black clothes standing on the giant doorway. "And about a hundred other people! AND it's because of you that Cross died!"

"Cross is dead?" Allen repeated. "Oh, that's nice. And it's nice to see you too, Fou. You've grown,"

"And you haven't changed a bit, Fourteenth," she growled.

"Could someone tell me just what the fuck is happening?" Kanda shouted, not caring who it was, just as long as the weird conversation finally explained the situation.

Fou glared at him. "You're the one who made a contract with this yokai, didn't you? Well here's the basics of the basics, dummy: this is one of the most dangerous yokai you could meet, a Millennium Yokai. A few years back, he caused a lot of destruction and deaths and my exorcist master, Cross, sealed him to stop him. Apparently, you didn't know any of this and just let him free, stronger than before! And, even worse, this yokai is the one who's supposed to start a stupid yokai Armageddon. You know, hell on earth, you stupid fucker?"

Kanda was about to send her a heated retort, but was interrupted by yet another thing. A large red door materialized out of the air next to Allen, who looked at it in surprise and amusement. Two yokai emerged, both similar in appearance to the beansprout, but different. One of them was familiar: Tyki, that irritating yokai that showed up, dropped a few hints and left abruptly a few weeks ago. The two new arrivals glanced around the room, and seeing Allen, looked energetic.

"Oh! Allen! You remember us, right?" The girl with spiky hair exclaimed. Allen rolled his eyes.

"You know, I was just thinking of you guys. You know where the Earl is, right? I want to kill him, so tell me where he's hiding."

"You're not going to get that chance, yokai!" Fou cried, running at the trio with something in her hand. They jumped out of the way.

"Hold it!" Kanda roared, grabbing at his katana. "I'm the one who's going to talk with that kid. Hey, beansprout, were you just using me?"

"So what?" Allen said, still eyeing the exorcist. "You were using me too. Don't try to deny it, because I'm sure the others know the truth too. You just wanted peace and you weren't afraid to use any means to get it. Though it's pretty amazing how it's never going to affect your inner peace, Kanda. Just how many people have you had killed for your desire to live quietly?"

"Shut up!" Kanda snapped.

"Isn't it true? You didn't care about what was going on. You didn't want to know anything about me, because you just wanted to focus on your own selfish desires. And now, you're going to use the excuse that you didn't know anything, when before you chose that path for yourself! Live with your consequences, Kanda. And watch as I lead this world to destruction." The two other yokai looked pleased.

Kanda felt tortured. Everything the dumbass beansprout was saying felt true. It hurt. It felt like he had doomed everything in his world. It was all _his_ fault that this monster was here before him. _He_ had let this happen, because he was blinded by his own hatred. And there was nothing he could do now. Unless…

Kanda held his katana tightly. He could side with the exorcist and stop the yokai. It felt wrong, because somewhere inside him, he wanted Allen to be free. He wanted Allen to be happy, but he had no idea that the kid's idea of happiness included the world's demise.

But what if he could still be with the yokai? What if he could convince the beansprout to let him live, so he could stay with him? Would he really mind if the rest of the world fell for his own desire?

This was fucked up. He had already stupidly followed his desires once and this was where he had ended up. He didn't care about the world, but he did worry about some people. Like Alma, and the stupid rabbit, Lavi, and even Marie and Daisya. They were dumb, but somehow, he didn't want them to die. He didn't want to just watch as Allen killed people he actually knew.

He was probably being selfish again, but he didn't think there was a way out without being selfish in some way.

Kanda glanced at Lavi and Alma. They were both waiting for him to say something. He made eye contact with the exorcist girl, who looked annoyed, then finally Allen. Allen had a calm, expectant face. He was waiting for him to make the first move. _You be white, _his eyes seemed to say. _I'll be black, and make the second move, once I see where you're going. _

Kanda never did like chess. He might as well be stupid about this.

"Hey, exorcist," he shouted across the room. "I'll help you take down these yokai. You can reseal them, right?" She blinked, startled, and then nodded. "Great." Kanda looked again at Lavi and Alma. "You'd better help stop these freaks, unless you want to watch them start the end of the world."

They too were almost surprised by his reaction, but they grinned and slapped his back. "We're with you all the way, Yu," Alma promised. "Trust us,"

"We can find out who's to blame once this is over," Lavi said grimly.

The three yokai laughed. "They think they're going to stop us, Allen!" Road giggled. "Hey, Tyki, you can have the one with the eye patch. I wanna play with the other one! He's cute! And I'm sure Allen wants the girly looking one, since he had so much bonding time. Make him miserable, Allen!"

They charged at their targets. Alma unsheathed his two wrist knives and blocked Road's strike with a purple umbrella. Lavi took out his iron hammer and ran to the side before the weird swarm of butterflies around Tyki came closer to him. Kanda waited as Allen came forwards with his claws, his katana ready. But the yokai stopped before he struck and danced aside. The exorcist, Fou, almost ran into Kanda.

"Watch where you're going, bitch!" he snapped. She glared at him again. Silently, Allen moved further away, towards the doors. Kanda and Fou both noticed and raced after him.

"Not quite as fun as the battlefields, right Kanda?" he whispered as his claws and Kanda's katana connected, sending small sparks flying. He continued talking as Kanda kept sending attack after attack, wishing the beansprout wasn't as good as he was. Now it was pretty ironic that the opponent he had been wishing for turned out to be the very kid who had been following around to grant his former wish for peace. "That was exciting, killing every human in sight like they were lambs at a butcher shop, until the whole ground was painted with red and black! You thought so too, right? That's why you're a warrior and not just a soldier. You're not like everyone else in this world. You're like me. You love killing people."

"Shut up," Kanda growled. Allen smirked and kept going.

"You say that because you don't want to think, right? You don't want to think about the past or the present. You forgot Corazón pretty quickly because you didn't want to think about the causes or effects of her death. You became a simple soldier because you didn't want to think about the causes or effects of the battles. You just want a peaceful life so you don't have to worry or think. You want to blindly eliminate everything in the way so you can live happily, isn't that right, Kanda!"

"You're not Allen," Kanda retorted.

"Not the Allen you remember," the yokai said, smiling that unnatural smile while aiming a vicious blow towards Kanda's head. "I'm the Fourteenth Millennium Yokai. I'm the other side of that Allen you thought was just a cute, little kid. But if you destroy me, you destroy the sweet Allen who followed you around like a human child and wanted to do anything to make you happy."

Kanda almost stopped. Allen cared about him too? He was about to fall back into another inner musing, and the yokai before him grinned triumphantly and brought his claws up for a powerful strike onto Kanda's body.

"Stop talking you damned yokai!" Fou yelled. She jumped in front of Allen and swung a glowing green knife at him. The yokai jumped back and she glanced back at Kanda. "And you wake up and stop listening to him!" Kanda shook his head to clear it of the thoughts that had almost returned. He charged at Allen again and they started clashing again, but as he came close again, Allen's eyes flickered over to the exorcist and Kanda saw something in them: apprehension.

So the yokai was afraid of something. And that something was getting sealed again. Kanda thought it was safe to grasp this one hope. All he had to do was give the exorcist time to do her work.

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: Huh, Allen is really OOC, isn't he? I feel like I've just pulled some insane Neah-like person from somewhere and forced it to look like Allen. Well, I do think what Allen says about Kanda is kind of true…Okay, so here's a sudden announcement: Next chapter is the end of this story, though I'm going to add another that explains the "time before" that everyone keeps talking about. I'm not going to talk much about what Alma, Lavi, Road and Tyki are doing, because I'd rather focus on Kanda, Allen and Fou. Sorry about all this. Also, next chapter might have some hints of Yullen, but don't expect too much from me. I had intended to lace the relationship between Kanda and Allen with more, but something went wrong…Oh well, I'll write a better Yullen after this one…<strong>

**Please review! I live off reviews as I'm writing my chapters! I know it might take a bit of your time, but writers spend hours on their chapters, hoping that their readers will spend one minute telling them what they liked. Please?**


	15. Feelings and Promises

_Kimiko: My computer crashed and once I got it working again, the internet stopped working. Life sucks sometimes. But I did finally get this out, in good time.  
><em>

**Feelings and Promises**

The Fourteenth moved backwards again, looking for another opening. Kanda stole a quick look back at Fou. She clearly had a lot of materials that could stop the yokai, but she couldn't get close enough to use them. Kanda, on the other hand, clashed right in front of him every ten seconds. So if he managed to get a hold of one of her exorcism things, he could probably surprise the Fourteenth with it.

But wouldn't that kill him? Kanda knew that he still didn't want to kill him. Even though this Allen was freaky, bloodthirsty, and set on destroying the world, somewhere inside him, the other one was still alive. The yokai himself had said that.

Kanda quickly brought up his katana again to block a particularly heavy blow from those wicked claws. The Fourteenth smiled, pleased that Kanda was finding it a challenge to keep up with him. "Isn't this interesting, Kanda?" he egged. "I'm sure it's completely different from every other fight you've ever been in. You have to kill me to save yourself and all of your friends. But if you do kill me, if you can, you'll have to live with the guilt of killing sweet little Allen." He nimble dodged Kanda's furious swing with the katana, chuckling. "Oh, but do you even know how to feel guilt anymore?" He paused and watched Kanda for his expression.

Kanda knew he was trying to get under his skin, but he also knew it was working. He gritted his teeth, trying not to retort, but it was so frustrating. He hated this. He hated this fight, this yokai in front of him, and this whole fucked up situation. He hated how this wasn't Allen.

He looked to the side and saw that Fou was watching for a chance to get close to the Fourteenth. He spoke quietly to her, hoping that the yokai wouldn't hear.

"Hey, exorcist, is there any way to get Allen back?"

Fou never took her eyes off the yokai. "Not like you have the right to know, but yeah, I suppose. You can seal him again or you can try to enter his soul. But that's stupid. And besides, I'm going to kill him so I can surpass Master Cross."

Kanda snorted. "Yeah whatever, I don't really care. But you'll never be able to get close enough to use any of your stuff."

"Shut up, fucker. I don't need your bullshit."

"He'll only let me come anywhere near him. Let me try that soul-whatever."

Fou laughed. "_You? _You're not even an exorcist, and only really good ones can try that. No, I'm going to kill him and that's it."

Kanda wanted to slap her, but he had a feeling that it would be just the distraction the Fourteenth needed to charge at them and kill them both. "You kill him and I'll kill you afterwards," he threatened. Then he sighed. "Please, just let me try this. Then, if it doesn't work, I'll help you seal him and you can do whatever. But just don't kill him."

Fou was silent for a few seconds, then, "Dammit, FINE! But I'm not doing this for you, just so you know! I honestly don't care about how you feel towards the monster." Kanda breathed softly in relief. Ahead, Allen was still watching them carefully, mostly on account of the exorcist. "All right, listen, wiseass," she said quietly. "Cause I'm only saying this once. Keep him busy for about two minutes. I can set up a link in that time, but I'll see if I can connect you to it instead of me, so you can take the dive into his soul. But just to warn ya, it's not going to be pretty. Yokai have really nasty souls, and I bet a split-personality one like this is even more twisted. And you're on your own when you're in there. I'll pull you out after ten minutes, and after that, if he's still dangerous, I'm going to give you Innocence dust to slow him down, and then I'm sealing him."

Kanda nodded. It was a decent compromise.

He immediately rushed at the yokai, readying his katana for whatever the Fourteenth did in retaliation. The yokai leapt into the air and white ribbons from his cloak attacked themselves into the walls, ceiling and floor so he hung like a spider. Kanda looked for the direction of the strike, so he could block it effectively. The claws seemed to twist and spiral, keeping him guessing on their ultimate intention until they finally swung in a huge arc towards the left side of his head. Kanda dropped to the floor and rolled to avoid it, ending up on his knees. The Fourteenth grinned and swooped after him like a nightmarish ghostly clown, trying to pin him under that deadly left hand. Annoyed at the yokai's apparent superiority, Kanda slashed at the white tendrils. He cut one, but it did nothing to stop the Fourteenth's freakish momentum in his direction. So the warrior twisted his katana upwards and stabbed at the incoming yokai's chest.

The Fourteenth pulled himself back, then released his hold on the walls and dropped to the ground again, only a meter away from Kanda, whose katana was not in any position to attack or defend. The yokai looked triumphant at this, and bent his claws so that they just barely touched Kanda's face.

Kanda froze. The evil yokai with Allen's face looked straight into his eyes, amused at Kanda's distress and frustration. Time seemed to stop as the claws inched closer, about to touch the skin.

Kanda reacted, but it still felt painfully slow. He let go of his katana with one hand and caught hold of the clawed hand, stopping it. The Fourteenth blinked in surprise and quickly wrenched his hand away. He instinctively pulled away from Kanda.

That was what Kanda needed. He rushed at the yokai again, but this time, he was not about to allow it to make the first move. He held his katana in one hand and, as he reached the Fourteenth once again, he swung his empty arm at the yokai first. He blocked the empty-handed attack and quickly realized it held no weapon. Kanda took advantage of this temporary disorientation to brace his blade against the yokai's claws. Their eyes met again, Kanda's shining with determination.

"Okay, NOW!" Fou yelled. Suddenly, Kanda felt like he had just lost all feeling in every single muscle. His stomach twisted as his body decided that it did not like this new sensation. His head spun and he tried to figure out whether he was falling or upside down or being torn apart.

* * *

><p>Kanda gripped his katana tightly. Okay so he still had that. He clenched his other fist. That arm was fine too. He shook his head and looked around at his surroundings. He was sitting down on a dirt path in the weirdest place he had ever been in.<p>

The sky was a dark grayish blue, and he could only tell that it was the sky because the ground was completely black. A crescent moon hung in the air, but offered little light for this dark world. The earth, if it could be called earth, was curved upwards like a bowl, the edges of which were unclear and made Kanda's head spin even more. Dark black-and-brown thorns were littered everywhere. Dead trees and tombstones dotted the landscape every here and there.

Kanda stood up, feeling like he would be sick. The world here was protesting his very existence, and his body seemed to agree that it would rather be anywhere but here. He glanced around again.

The only promising thing was the path, so he started to follow it. He tried not to think about all the weird things he passed, and instead only thought about finding that damn beansprout and getting out of here.

Ten minutes. That was what the exorcist girl said.

Kanda passed another group of trees and noticed a large frozen lake that reflected the moon. No, it didn't really reflect the moon. It was covered with blood and extended as far as he could see. The blood was slowly leaking into a crack that started near the edge close to the path and worked its way into an actual opening in the ice. Kanda couldn't help but glance into it and immediately wished he hadn't. A skeleton beneath the cracked, frozen surface grinned up at him and shot a bony arm up towards him. Kanda jumped back and slashed at the creep with his katana, but the hand was already gone beneath the ice. It hadn't even made any noise.

"This place is too damn quiet," Kanda growled. His voice didn't even echo. It just seemed to be swallowed up by the vast, dead landscape. "And this is the brat's soul?"

He walked more quickly down the path. He was getting nearer to a thicker clump of dead, spiny trees. Kanda finally broke into a run.

In the center of the trees was a strange glowing globe, beyond which was a large stone chair. Sitting on the chair, trapped to it with chains, was the beansprout. The large silver eyes widened as he saw Kanda. And Kanda was taken aback too. He looked so small and frail. He didn't have a mark on his face or a hand full of claws or a dangerous aura around him. He looked like a simple and innocent child.

"Kanda!" he exclaimed. "How did you get here?"

"Who cares," Kanda said, irritable but extremely relieved to see that his brat was still alive and okay. "I'm just here to get you out and to stop that retarded Fourteenth whatever." Allen looked nervous, so Kanda unsheathed his katana. "Here, I'll cut those off,"

"No," the boy answered, shaking his head. Kanda stared at him but halted. "Even if you did, I still can't stop the Fourteenth. Not when he's awoken like this anyway." He looked sad and Kanda tried to reassure him.

"Why not?"

"The Fourteenth relies on chaos and madness to use my power to cause destruction. I have a hard time stopping him once he's started, because it's like an intensifying process. It's easier when he's weakened, when he's dormant, or when he he's been sealed. When that last one happens, neither of us can use our power externally, and I have a bit of an advantage in here." He looked around at the lonely barren landscape that surrounded them.

Kanda felt frustrated and useless. "What can I do to help you?"

"You need to get Fou to seal me away. It'll stop the Fourteenth and I might be able to lock him away in here again, in the lake."

"Wait, if you get sealed again, will you still be the same?" Kanda asked anxiously. "Or are you going to lose your memories again?"

Allen shook his head. "Sealing doesn't make me lose my memories. Last time, it was the Fourteenth who did that. He thought that if I didn't remember how he tried to take over the first time, I would be easier to overwhelm this time around. I guess he was right." He looked away, sadly.

Kanda felt awful. In part, he had helped all of this to happen. He distantly was aware of moving forwards. He didn't even realize he was hugging the kid until a few seconds had passed in the unnatural silence. But he didn't stop and instead embraced the boy in chains even tighter.

"But you'll be the same as when I first found you in the ruins, right?" He felt the kid nod. Then he heard a soft intake of breath and felt a sudden wetness touch his neck. Allen was crying.

"I'm sorry Kanda. I'm sorry a part of me is hurting you. And I'm sorry if you feel bad about this."

"Stupid. Why should you be sorry?"

"I'm a yokai. I'm a monster. I don't deserve to be around you." Kanda pulled back and gently wiped the tears away from the beansprout's face. He was about to reply, but Allen continued. "And, there's something else I need to say before you go back, because you're almost out of time." He looked up at Kanda, tears still forming around those perfect silver eyes that reflect the sorry excuse for a night sky in here.

"Kanda, last time, when I was sealed the second time, I was sent away to those ruins. Cross had no idea where I was going to end up, just that I would be sent somewhere safe until I finished freezing the Fourteenth in the lake. So, if I disappear again, will you look for me? I'll wait for you, until you find me. I'd like to be your friend this time, not just a weapon. I'd do anything, if I could just see you again."

Kanda tried to smile, to reassure him, but he suddenly felt the wrong sensation of being ripped out of the yokai's soul again.

* * *

><p>"I'm sure I have no idea what you were doing in my soul," he heard the Fourteenth spit from half a meter away. "But I can assure you that I won't let you run around anymore." Kanda forced his eyes to work again and saw that the yokai looked very off-balance. Maybe the soul-connection affected him too. Kanda knew he had to take this chance now, for the beansprout.<p>

He glanced backwards, and caught sight of Fou sliding a hand-sized bundle wrapped in a cloth across the floor towards him. In the distance, Lavi and Alma both looked exhausted as the two other yokai continued a merciless assault on them, with candles and weird butterflies. Kanda gritted his teeth. It was now or never. The other yokai might leave if this one was rendered useless, anyway.

He grabbed the package and held it in his right hand, his katana in the left. Kanda watched the Fourteenth closely, hoping for just one opening, away from those claws…

He raised his eyebrows in revelation. In the apparent shock from having an alien presence in his soul, the yokai had temporarily shifted his arm back into a harmless human one. He was completely defenseless for at least a few seconds.

Kanda dropped his katana and opened the package carefully. He quickly closed the remaining distance between them and crushed the package against the yokai's left arm before it could revert back to its lethal form.

The Fourteenth screamed and pushed Kanda away from him, writhing in pain while clutching at his arm. Kanda briefly glanced at the package. There were a few pieces of tiny green shards in it. He hurried back to Fou, who was already taking out more things from her weird cloak.

"What was in that package?"

"Pieces of crystallized Innocence residue." She said simply. "It's enough to keep him distracted while I get ready to seal him." She glanced up at the yokai, still loudly voicing his extreme hurt from the poisonous substance. Kanda watched as the arm began to look dead and scaly from the toxic Innocence. Allen hadn't been joking when he didn't want to be anywhere near it when Link had threatened him with it earlier.

Finally the Fourteenth stopped twisting in pain. Instead he glared at Kanda in hatred. "Oh, you've done it now. I thought it'd be amusing to play with you to hear how Allen screams inside, but not anymore. You think Innocence is funny to us? I'll kill you for this. I'll tear you into pieces and make you into a work of art, like the ones I left on the battlefield. I'll eat your heart and I hope Allen breaks. I'll keep your hair in a braid and dangle your eyes from a string. I'll leave your skin hanging from a flagpole for everyone to see. Whatever is left of your body, I'll hand out to the other yokai, so they can use it to curse humans." He advanced madly towards Kanda.

Fou slammed a long stick into the ground in front of her. All movement in the room halted. The Fourteenth looked at it in shock. "You know what this'll do to you right?" She said in a low voice. "No escape for you now." A white light started to emanate from her body. It was absorbed by the stick and shot towards the yokai. The Fourteenth tried to shrink back from the light, but it wrapped around him like hungry vines.

Kanda watched as another red mark formed on the yokai's face. It was different from the other one; it was the same design but this time it was purple instead of red. The Fourteenth glared hatefully at Kanda as the glowing vines began to engulf him.

"I hate—" he began, but the voice slowly changed into a softer, younger one. "I love you, Kanda. Thank you. I mean it this time." Allen smiled at Kanda as he started to disappear behind the vines.

Kanda knew he had to let him go, so he could re-lock the Fourteenth inside his soul. But still, it hurt to only watch him go. He shouted after him: "Don't you dare lose, you beansprout! And you'd better remember everything when I find you again!" The look of happiness on the boy's face as he finally vanished beneath the white light was instantly engraved into Kanda's heart.

* * *

><p>Tyki and Road were gone when Alma and Lavi turned back to look for them. They had probably been disappointed when the Fourteenth lost and decided that they had no reason to stick around. Fou left without another word, saying that she was going to go find them and eliminate them. She reasoned that they couldn't be too far away and she could find yokai better than anyone in the country.<p>

Lavi and Alma walked over to where Kanda stood, facing the open doorway. It was pointless taking about the coup d'état they had just pulled. Kanda wouldn't care. They both knew he had one thing on his mind now.

Alma spoke first. "So, Yu, I hope you're not thinking about leaving us behind while you go looking for Allen."

"I bet you couldn't find a tree in a forest," Lavi laughed. "You need us."

"Shut up," Kanda growled. "You're annoying. As if I'd want you guys following me everywhere. Hell, you'd probably never stop talking." He stormed off through the doors.

Lavi and Alma looked at each other.

"He never did say he didn't want us helping him, did he?" Lavi asked.

Alma smiled. "Nope. Let's go. I'm sure the new Allen is going to be really adorable. And I've noticed Yu is really adorable when he's with him."

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: Well, this is the end of it. I really didn't plan on writing any more of this. I'll have another chapter explaining what happened to Allen and Mana and company before this story, but that's it. And I must admit that I made this ending a whole lot happier than I planned. I was going to have a really creepy angsty ending, but I felt like being nice to Allen and Kanda. Mostly Kanda. Allen was just OOC for all of this. I think he's kind of girly, actually, but it's kind of how he was portrayed when he followed Mana around like a lost puppy. Only here, he followed Kanda like a lost puppy. And kind of fell in love with him. Yeah.<strong>

**Please review. But note that I'm probably going to be slightly annoyed with reviews that only say "Please write more." If you're going to read this, then you can at least tell me what you think I'm good at or bad at, so I can write another Yullen later, that's even better than this. Oh, and remember that the pairing in this is Yullen, but it is most definitely not a romance story.**

**Just saying.**

**Thanks for reading this far! I hope you like the next and last chapter too! \(^-^)/  
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	16. Past and Premonition

_Kimiko: Okay, so I was a selfish jerk. I'm sorry. I'll write more to this story after this chapter, I promise. (But it's probably only going to be a long epilogue…I have an idea ready, but it'll take time to write) Happy? Maybe? I made it longer for you!  
><em>

_Flanagan: Shut up and write._

**Past and Premonition**

_Eleven years ago…_

The child with the pure white hair and silver eyes practically danced alongside the older man as they walked down the road towards the town. The man smiled and played along with the younger one's antics. Bit in actuality, he was just as excited as the child to arrive. They were two street performers and they moved from town to town, city to city, making a living by entertaining the countryside with tricks they had never before seen. The man, Mana, was the main performer, and the child, Allen, was his delightful little helper.

They skipped along the path, Mana humming a tune while Allen struggled to keep up. Soon however, just outside the town, they had to stop for a quick breather. They leaned against a tree not too far away in the grass, holding onto their bags and laughing at their antics. Mana got his breath back first and poked Allen so that the child started to giggle, trying to escape.

Another man walking down the road from the town stopped a few meters away from the two. He watched them for a few minutes, until Mana suddenly did a handstand, smiling at the newcomer.

"Good day, sir!" Mana said cheerfully, falling back to the ground and bowing politely. "Sorry we're not in costume yet, or you'd see an even better show. But if you're from that town up ahead, then you can see us in real action this afternoon!" Allen smiled too and stood right next to his guardian, completing their image.

The man crossed his arms. He had long red hair covered partly by a large black hat. His face was half hidden behind a strange white mask, the other half behind a pair of glasses. He was wearing a long black and gold coat that looked like it held a lot of things in the pockets. He didn't smile back. Instead he peered closely at the odd pair before him. "Who are you?" he asked, in a rather rude voice.

Mana was used to dealing with all kinds of people, though. This new person's relative impoliteness was nothing to get upset over. "My name's Mana Walker and this is Allen! We're performers, if you didn't guess yet. And what might your name be?"

The man scoffed curtly. "Cross Marian."

"It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Marian!"

"Just call me Cross."

Mana gave up. "Well, we'll see you later today. Right now, me and Allen are off to get something wonderful to eat, right Allen, my boy?" The child beside him nodded eagerly and began to bounce off towards the town.

"Hang on," Cross's voice called before they got too far away. "I have something I want to ask you." He didn't bother waiting until Mana and Allen turned to face him. "That kid there, he's a yokai, isn't he? What are you doing with something like that? And why is he prancing around unhidden?"

Mana looked uncomfortably at Allen. The child was slumped over sadly. "Do I have to leave, Mana?" he whispered.

The older man shook his head and ruffled Allen's hair, making the boy yelp and try to cover it up before it was messed up any more. Mana laughed. "I know Allen's a yokai," he said with a faint smile. "You're an exorcist, aren't you? Well, here's the story: when I found him over a year ago, he was just too cute to leave alone. He's harmless and this is what he looks like all of the time. He's a lot like a real child, isn't he?" He smiled admiringly at Cross, as if Allen was his own child. "That's what I treat him as."

Cross was still skeptical. "You can't really trust yokai, especially if you don't know what their powers are."

Mana sighed and lifted Allen into his arms. "He has the mentality of a child, Mr. Cross. All he does is perform silly tricks with me. We just wander around, enjoying life by ourselves." He paused, lost for a moment in Allen's deep silver eyes. "As for why everyone can see him, I suppose it's because he wants to be seen. I've never really figured that out."

Cross moved closer to the yokai. It did have a strong yokai aura, but that may just be because it didn't hide it. Still, the child was almost intriguing.

"Can the yok—I mean Allen—transform at all?" Cross asked. "I'm just curious. I have a friend somewhere who wanted me to get information on these types of them." He might as well get some information that could be helpful in getting other information out of the old Bookman. Besides, he wanted to be sure that the kid wasn't pulling anyone's leg and trying to act harmless, with a human accomplice.

Mana glanced at Allen. "Um, I've only seen it once. I guess if he wants to see, Allen do you mind?"

Allen shrugged. "No, you can see it. But Mr. Cross, will you come to the show later?" he asked expectantly. Cross felt like rolling his eyes, but gave a brief jerk of his head that could either be interpreted as trying to loosen up a stiff neck or a nod. Allen decided to assume it was the second option.

There was a soft rustling of wind and Allen's left arm suddenly shifted, becoming dark and clawed. A white feathery cloak wrapped itself around the kid's body. His hair was spikier and his eyes seemed more intense, looking much older than his youthful body. As soon as he was done changing however, he was back in his child form.

"Is that okay?"

* * *

><p><em>Far away…<em>

Adam, the yokai called the Earl, stopped midway through bringing the cup to his lips. The twelve other yokai around the table looked at him in surprise when they noticed that he had stopped moving. Some of them had felt the same gentle ripple through the air, only noticeable to them, these thirteen people who made up the Millennium Yokai.

"What was that, Earl?" one of them asked, not sure what they had just experienced. The Earl hesitated, but then broke into an eerie grin.

"Oh, it was something I haven't felt for a long time!" the Earl said sweetly. He stood up, leaving his setting at the table still half-full of an odd assortment of food. This included several different desserts, tea, and a moderate portion of crocodile meat with a blood-based sauce. "Hmm, I would rather go see the source than talk about it right now, though. Tyki, Road, if you would come with me please. I want to go over and see more of the source of it. It's one of your siblings, one of us."

Two of the yokai stood up, smirking. They could tell there would be a lot of excitement tonight. They followed the large, round man towards a red door in the dark wall.

* * *

><p>Fou rolled her eyes as she watched Mana's show through the window of the restaurant. Cross was the one who was supposed to see it, not her. She had been looking for her no-good exorcist master when he walked into town with the two street performers, who both energetically introduced themselves and tried to become friends with her. This was probably what these types of people did for a living, but it was still kind of awkward and annoying having some random guy and a kid-yokai talking to you like they heard you were about to get married. Not that she was old enough for that. She was only twelve, being dragged around the country by the only good exorcist around.<p>

Though Fou had a rotten master, she did want to be an exorcist. Yokai had killed her family and she wanted to destroy them to rid the world of their disgusting presence.

But this kid, Allen, actually didn't seem all that bad. He didn't have that pungent aura that was associated with dangerous yokai, and he really acted just like a child, like her. Of course, _she_ didn't act like a child, but that was different. Allen had probably had this kind of mindset for a long time. She was pretty sure yokai didn't age like normal people. It was usually much slower, often punctuated by sudden bursts of random growth.

Fou groaned and leaned her head back. She honestly wasn't here to watch a street show. "Hey, dumb old geezer," she said, addressing Cross. "When are we moving out of town? I want to get back to killing yokai, rather than wait for you to get over your love affairs."

Cross leered at her. "Show some respect or I won't teach you anything,"

"You haven't taught me anything," Fou shot back. "Everything I can do is something I had to learn by myself."

"That's great," the older exorcist said. "You can finish up your training soon, become a real exorcist, and I can retire. Besides, it's good practice to come up with anti-yokai tactics on your own. I won't be around to babysit you and hold your hand all the time. You're still sloppy, which will kill you someday when you're up against an actually dangerous yokai."

Fou fumed at this insult to her skill and got up to leave. She quickly stormed out of the building so Cross couldn't insist that she pay the bill. He could take care of it by himself this time. She was ready to go.

* * *

><p>Allen bowed along with Mana once they were finished, after completing two encore-requests from their audience. The crowds here loved them just as much as any other place they had been. They had made plenty of money and received many gifts from the poorer people who watched, enough to fund their stay in town and even buy things they wanted or needed. So all in all, it had been a very successful night. They would stay a while longer, doing smaller performances and then finish in a few days with one great final show. Then, they would move on to the next location. It was a fun and pleasant life.<p>

Now some people from the audience were coming up to them, asking them about some of the things they did, or the places where they had traveled. Allen let Mana take care of this part, because the man was so much better than himself at fabricating grand stories of adventures in faraway places. The people who listened sometimes could tell there were some twisted truths, but the stories were so marvelous that they didn't really mind.

Allen slowly allowed himself to wander slightly away from the large crowd, to a corner of the marketplace. It was evening now, and many people were heading home. One man from the crowd detached himself and approached Allen. He was a large, fat man whose face was partially hidden by a funny-looking top hat.

"You're Allen, one of the performers, right?" the man asked with a wide smile. Allen politely smiled back and agreed. "Ah, yes, now that I'm closer to you, I can feel something different. You're a yokai, correct?" Allen looked worried, but the man just chuckled, in a way that was probably not meant to sound ominous. "Oh, it's fine, my dear boy! I'm just curious in yokai, that's all. I was wondering if this is what you look like all the time,"

The question hung in the air. Allen paused. Mana had told him once never to do this for anyone. But they had shown Cross that afternoon, so it should be fine if he showed one more person. And once he changed back, he could ask this man to come to another show. So Allen reached for that sensation deep within himself, which made his heart beat differently. He found the power and embraced it, feeling it rush though his body and alter his appearance. His arm constricted and grew claws, and the cloak blossomed from around his neck and covered his body. His skin prickled a bit, but he quickly got over the feeling.

But this time, something else happened, something that had never happened before. His mind began to react differently. For some reason, his instincts told him that the person in front of him was also a yokai and that he had to kill him.

Unseen to anyone but the man in front of him, Allen's eyes flickered between silver and gold.

Allen was terrified. He couldn't change back. His new instincts were forcing him to stay like this and to attack something, to kill. "M-Mana!" he yelled, in terror. The man before him, still smiling evilly, began to back away and it took all of Allen's willpower to stay where he was until his guardian came for him.

Mana rushed to the child's side and knelt before him, taking the small face in his hands. "Allen, what's wrong?" Still in yokai form, the boy was hyperventilating, and his body trembled violently. He looked around for some source for the child's current state, but the round man was already out of sight. He turned back to face Allen. "Are you okay? Did something scare you?"

Suddenly Allen felt his body move, but his mind wasn't connected to it. Out of his peripheral vision, he barely registered how both his right and his left arms clutched Mana strongly. With the claws on the left pointing directly towards the man. Allen blinked a few times to try to regain focus on what was happening. He looked at Mana. And promptly began panicking again.

His dark, sleek claws were firmly embedded in Mana's back. Blood was spilling down the man's body in thick rivulets and Mana had a look of utter pain and shock on his face. Allen quickly yanked the claws out of Mana, wincing along with him as they caused more horrid throbbing and blood loss. Allen began to cry as Mana slumped to the ground. The older man was barely able to force himself into a sitting position. His breathing was now heavy and labored, and his eyelids were fluttering, but remained trained on Allen.

"Mana!" Allen cried. "I'm so sorry! I don't know what's happening!"

Mana reached up to hold Allen's right hand. He gave it a weak squeeze and gasped, "Allen, don't panic. Just get someone to help, okay?"

Allen tried to agree, but he abruptly felt something new. It was something like a dark, cold hand gripping his mind and his heart, forcing him to stop everything and relinquish control of everything. Semiconscious, he muttered, "I feel…different." He stood slowly, swaying on his feet. "I feel…"

His body moved again, but this time, it wasn't raw instinct that moved them. An unfamiliar, yet not unknown presence inside himself was doing this. Allen felt like a drunken inhabitant within his own body as he watched the claws, still damp with Mana's blood, dive straight into the man's body again. He could do nothing but cry when he saw the fear in Mana's eyes.

'_No, stop. I don't want to do this,' _Allen begged to whatever was responsible for these actions.

Mana was speaking slowly and softly, "So you finally…snapped. I suppose…it was too much of me…to hope you…would be…like the younger brother…I lost when I was a kid."

Allen tried to reaffirm control of himself, but apparently, even the use of his voice was now gone. He faintly heard his voice talking, but not the words he wanted to say. He wanted to say that he loved Mana like a child loves his father, that he didn't want to lose him, and that he would do anything to make this up. But instead the words that came out were: "You're human. You'll die just like that brother soon. For Allen's sake, I'll put you out of your misery. I wouldn't want him to be too sad about watching you die a long, agonizing death." The voice paused as Allen kept weeping inside, reflected on the outside by the tears that continued down his face. "This is for you Allen. Watch closely. This is called mercy and it's a lot more than pathetic humans deserve. But because he took care of us until we awakened fully, we'll show him all our love." Mana looked absolutely horrified. The terror of death created a sickly sweet aura about his mortal frame. "Goodbye Mana. Both I and Allen love you."

Allen desperately fought to seize control of his hand, but it was too far away. However, he was able to temporarily regain the use of his voice. "Mana," he breathed between sobs. "Is this all I am?"

The lethal weapon of his arm finally struck the older man's vulnerable flesh. Mana twitched with shock, and Allen could tell that he was dying. Faintly, he heard the man whisper.

"Allen…you're…a yokai. You'll never…be like a human child...like my little brother."

And Allen promptly lost the last fragments of his control, dropping with shock into the dark recesses of his mind and soul.

* * *

><p>Fou and Cross stopped as they came upon the horrid scene. In one corner of the marketplace, Allen was standing above Mana, his yokai claws lathered in deep red blood. Already, some people in the clearing were starting to notice and gather into a huddle, murmuring in hushed voices.<p>

"Did Allen just kill Mana?" Fou slowly managed to gasp.

"Yes," Cross said grimly. "And it's about to get a lot worse." His apprentice turned her head to face whatever it was that he had his eyes on. There, a few meters away from them, was a large man in a comical suit and top hat. He had his eyes set on the tragic scene, but they quickly averted their gaze to the exorcist pair.

"Who's that?" Fou asked, already anticipating an unpleasant answer.

"The First Millennium Yokai, Adam, also called the Earl," Cross stated, "I've already told you about them, right? They're the most powerful yokai in the world, and together, they can bring the world into a living hell. We've got to stop them, no matter what."

Suddenly Allen spoke, but his tone sounded much darker than the child Fou and Cross had met that afternoon. "Ah, it's First. I haven't seen you in an eternity. And I suppose that's Third and Ninth hiding in the crowd there. Well, this is a touching reunion." He began walking casually away from Mana's body towards the fat yokai. "It's so nice that you came here to see me. Now I can kill you without having to hunt you down, First."

The Earl laughed happily. "Oh, my you're so cute, especially in that little body! You flatter me, but I have to admit that I'd rather bring the world into darkness _with _you than be threatened by you."

Allen didn't look pleased. He scowled for a moment, but then broke into a threatening smile. "That's okay, you don't have to be happy about it. I don't mind if you're too unhappy, First. Just die for me. Is that too much to ask for?"

Two figures jumped in front of Allen before he reached the Earl, blocking his way. They grabbed him and dragged his out of sight within seconds. Cross and Fou tried to follow, but the two yokai were too fast. The exorcists began to hear faint screams and dull sounds of fighting. Fou wondered whether to leave and try to stop the three yokai, or stay with her master who remained here with the First, the most dangerous yokai in the world.

"Fou, go after him, or he'll kill everyone here!" Cross roared and Fou didn't hesitate. She rushed off in the direction of the struggle, which was already starting to smoke against the dark sky. Cross stayed, facing down the yokai in front of him. "So you knew that brat was a Millennium Yokai?" he snapped.

"Oh, you're the exorcist Cross," the Earl said pleasantly. "And you know about us, don't you?"

Cross narrowed his eyes. "I know more than a lot of people will ever know in their lifetimes. I know exactly what you fourteen do. That white-haired brat, or rather the darker side of his soul, is the one who will lead the world into the chaos that the rest of the yokai will use to overwhelm the human race. But that's just basic knowledge."

The Earl stared at him for a few moments, and then sighed in a mixture of happiness and melancholy. "You know, I'd love to chat with you, but I have other things to do. You do too. You have a problem here, don't you Cross? You can either fight me, and you'll probably lose, or you can address the little issue over there in the town. Your choice."

Cross snorted, fingering a revolver in his pocket. But he didn't take it out. "Like that's much of a choice," he said before he rushed off after Fou.

* * *

><p>The Fourteenth was livid. Every time he was about to deal a blow on one of those pesky Millennium Yokai, some human got in the way and he ended up killing them instead of his original target. And to make matters more frustrating, they kept destroying buildings around him, trying to crush him under rubble. Of course, he always avoided it, but it kept adding fuel to the fire raging through a good portion of the town and it kept getting in his way.<p>

"Why can't you just sit still and let me kill you," he hissed to the Third, a yokai known as Tyki. "I've been waiting to kill you for a long time. Although if I could just kill First I would forget about you. But you twelve are so stupidly loyal to him. The world doesn't need a new order led by a fatass old yokai. Chaos is the best for it."

Tyki chuckled, dodging each swing of the claws and blocking them with butterfly-shaped crystallizations of his power. "Boy, I think I liked you better when you were on stage. All naïve and such. But I guess red is definitely your color, along with black. It brings out the monster in you."

The Fourteenth smiled back, continuing in his furious attempts to kill the yokai, destroying the town and its inhabitants in the process. Next was Road, the Ninth. She stepped in for the gentlemanly yokai as the Fourteenth got his claws stuck in yet another human, trying to wrestle them out without showering blood into his face. The Fourteenth sighed when he saw her.

"This is taking too long." He glared at them and a reddish burst of energy swirled around him, shaking the earth and forcing the humans around them to back off. More buildings crumbled, but they fell inwards, away from the three yokai in the street. "I want to finish up with you so I can get back to First."

Road giggled and ran forwards, grabbing his arms and preventing them from moving in her surprisingly strong grip. "You know, we were excited about this too. Though we were hoping you would be a little more civil. We are family, after all."

"Ha!" The Fourteenth grinned, leaning closer to her face "Like I would want to be part of your family! No, I just want to live in chaos. That world will be possible once I kill all the high-ranking people on Earth, along with you Thirteen Millennium Yokai! I don't care about anyone else right now. I just want to kill you."

Fou's voice interrupted him. She stood far enough back to be out of the way of their fighting, but close enough for an exorcist to interfere somehow. "You know, all of this is just going to keep helping the Earl!"

The Fourteenth's smile slipped as he glanced at the arrival to the scene. "You're wrong about that, Fou. I'm not creating chaos for the First. I'm creating chaos for myself, and I'm going to be the one to rule, once I get rid of that fool of a yokai called the Earl."

"That's bullshit if you ask me," Cross said loudly. His hand was bloody and he held a strange stick in his hands. "You're not going to do any of that. The Fourteenth is going back where he belongs, locked in the soul of the yokai called Allen."

The Fourteenth laughed at this, but Road and Tyki slowly backed away. They knew that exorcists were full of surprises, and Cross was one of the most exceptional exorcists around. There wasn't a yokai to be found who didn't at least know his name. Some didn't fear him too much, but then again, he didn't make a name by being an everyday exorcist. They would let him do whatever he wanted, though they knew the Fourteenth would put up a fight just for the sake of continuing his fight to kill the Earl.

Cross tossed the stick towards Fou and she caught it. It was smeared with blood. "Hold that until I tell you otherwise," he said quietly. "When I get him to stop moving, you focus all of your exorcism power into that thing. I'll direct it to stop the yokai." She didn't argue. This was serious and any stupid mistake could get them both killed, not to mention the rest of the town and the rest of the world. Cross himself reached into his pocket, while slowly advancing towards the Fourteenth.

The yokai was prepared for a sudden rush at him. He was not expecting Cross to whip out a gun and shoot at him. He was just able to block it with his claw, but he could feel the painful, acidic sting of Innocence. He tried to move out of the way, but every time he started, Cross would send an Innocence bullet just millimeters past his body. He tensed, looking for a way out, but the gun was unpredictable.

"NOW, FOU!" Cross yelled. The Fourteenth turned his attention to the apprentice, who had gotten startlingly close while he was preoccupied with Cross. She held a bloody staff-like thing that smelled suspiciously like Mana's blood, mixed with Cross.

The Fourteenth suddenly knew what was happening. Cross was about to seal him away using the blood as a medium to create a strong binding that would not break without a lot of effort. No, it wasn't just that. This was a double seal. Not only would his yokai power be blocked off, but he would also be locked in some repulsive holy-place, where he as a yokai couldn't escape.

He yelled in fury and tried to escape, but the disgusting, sticky, glowing pink tendrils were wrapping tightly around his body. Each one that touched him felt revolting and too-pure. He could feel his power slipping away. No. This couldn't be happening. Not after all this time waiting to break free. He had to do something. A thought occurred to him amidst his rage and he quickly acted upon it. He stared hatefully at the two exorcists, but allowed a hint of smugness to show.

"Cross, this isn't the end, you know. You're just postponing the inevitable. Unless you have the courage to kill me, which is a greater task than you realize, you can't possibly stop me. I'll live on in Allen. I'll break out soon. And he won't even realize what's going on."

Because, even as he felt his and Allen's body being whisked away to some place, he knew that he had at least one thing in his favor. He had hidden Allen's memories of the event.

Now all he had to do was wait.

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: I'm so sorry this came out so late. I blame it on writer's block and school. Speaking of which, I'm sure that I have some assignment I'm supposed to be doing instead of writing this up…<strong>

**Flanagan: And we will have a good long epilogue after this with your Yullen moment. So be happy and wait patiently, okay? And review!  
><strong>


	17. Today and Tomorrow

_Kimiko: Well, here's the last chapter of this. Sorry it's not as long as I wanted it to be, but I think the content is pretty good.  
><em>

*WARNING: Contains lime. (Sorry it's not lemon, for anyone who was hoping for that. I don't do that stuff yet.)

**Epilogue**

**.**

**.  
><strong>

**Today and Tomorrow**

It had been one year, five months, two weeks and six days since Kanda had last seen Allen. The warrior, now twenty-one, had been counting the time for two reasons: One, Lavi and Alma really pissed him off sometimes and he was looking forward to a time when he could finally get away from them. And two, he really, _really, _wanted to see Allen again.

Yes, he thought of him as "Allen" now. Whenever Kanda would think of the young, white-haired yokai, it was always "Allen," though he would use that old nickname of "beansprout" when Alma and Lavi spoke about him. Lavi had caught onto the usage of the nickname and thought it was cute, though Alma still referred to the child as "Allen." Kanda secretly wished his friend had followed Lavi's example. He didn't really like hearing the kid's name spoken by anyone else. They didn't deserve to say that beautiful name, owned by that beautiful form.

The three ex-soldiers had been wandering the countryside ever since the war ended. They had heard the talk of how the country's rule was being debated by several of the lords. These men were attempting to settle matters peacefully, as they were still haunted by the scars of the conclusion to the last war. The entire country was waiting patiently for their resolution. Even Lavi was somewhat interested in what would happen next. Alma was indifferent, saying that it didn't matter too much who ruled because he just wanted to live life without another war. Kanda couldn't care less about politics. He ignored all of the pointless rambling that went on during political discussions.

All he cared about now—all he had cared about during all of the time that had passed—was finding Allen.

"Hey~, Yu!" the stupid rabbit sang right next to his ear. In a flash, Kanda had his katana unsheathed and pointing into Lavi's neck. Alma smirked, watching the proceeds. They happened just about every day, but Lavi still liked to bug the warrior by calling him by his first name.

"Don't call me that," Kanda growled. "I'll give you so many scars all over your face that girls will pay to get away from you." The redhead blanched.

"Aww, that's not nice," he whined. "I was just wondering if you knew where we were heading next. After the last town, you just kinda stormed off."

Kanda scoffed and put away his katana, beginning to walk away from them. "I never asked you losers to follow me. Piss off." But they continued to follow him, as they had for the past seventeen months. He knew this, of course, but said nothing more. It was almost nice having them there, minus the times when they were annoying as hell. They kept him from going insane while wondering about Allen. They also kept him hopeful that he would eventually find the yokai.

They were coming up on a relatively large village. Lavi and Alma started talking about whether they should find a place to stay first or find a place to eat. When they finally stopped, Kanda kept walking.

"Yu, where are you going," Alma called after him.

"I'll be back. There's probably only one place to stay in a place like this anyway. I'll meet you there," he said absently. He had to find a place to think.

This town felt no different than the last ones they had gone through. Over the course of the past months, Kanda, Alma, and Lavi had checked what felt like thousands of temples, churches, shrines and even small spiritual locations, some of which had been in obscure places like behind a waterfall or in caves. All of them had been dead ends, though. And even though they had encountered several yokai during that time, none of them who had been interrogated by Kanda knew anything about Allen. It was all very discouraging, but Kanda didn't want to give up. Every day, he remembered the last smile Allen had given him before he disappeared in the blinding white light.

He walked through just about every street in the village, wishing that he could once again feel that peculiar sensation that had drawn him to the ruins in the first place. Since Allen was gone, he felt like there was something important missing from his life, an essential part of his spirit that couldn't be replaced.

Kanda stopped. He had been walking for over an hour, and it was already getting dark. He might as well get back to the inn he had passed a while ago, where he was sure Lavi and Alma were waiting. In the morning, they could look through all of the religious places around, but Kanda suspected they wouldn't find Allen here either. There was just some feeling within him that said the yokai was not sealed in any of the spiritual spots here.

* * *

><p>"Y—Kanda, are you feeling okay?" Alma looked at his friend in concern. Kanda looked up and replaced the distant expression on his face with his trademark scowl.<p>

"Of course." He snapped. "I'm just pissed that this place doesn't have any real food." He glared at the portion Lavi had ordered before him before pushing it aside and standing up. "I'm going up to the room. Don't bother me. I want to at least get some sleep, since I have to spend another day with you two tomorrow. Oh, and feel free to leave whenever you want." He stalked away through the crowded, noisy downstairs of the inn.

A drunken woman tried to flirt with him as he walked across the room, and he almost punched her out of his way. Some man pushed his way forwards, also drunk, and tried to pick a fight with him over the woman. Kanda drew his katana and threatened them, telling them to get away from him.

Finally, most of the people who had seen this moved to make a path for him, murmuring to themselves. And as Kanda walked up the stairs, he faintly heard Lava and Alma whispering to each other.

"He's got it bad for the beansprout, doesn't he?"

"I think it'd be nice to finally see them together. Maybe he won't be as icy as he is now,"

Kanda shot one last glare at them and stomped up the stairs. This whole place was probably one of the crappiest places he had been in the last few months. There was absolutely nothing here. It was even worse when Alma and Lavi began muttering to themselves about how he was in love with Allen.

He was in love with the kid, but he didn't need uninvolved people saying that. It was annoying, especially when it made him want the yokai even more, only to be reminded that he couldn't have him until he finally found him and broke him out of the weak seal that bound him to a spiritual place.

* * *

><p><em>That night…<em>

Kanda awoke again, staring at the moonlight that came through the window and shone across the ceiling. His room was completely silent and empty, just as he liked it, but something felt off. It might have been the remnants of his irritation at the villagers, other travelers, and the world in general. But something was preventing him from sleeping. Kanda glared at a point on the ceiling for no reason other than to have something to glare at.

This sucked. He would have to deal with the village tomorrow. Couldn't he at least get some sleep tonight, so he wouldn't have to see the shitty people and things in the village?

He sat up in his bed and swung his legs over the side. If he couldn't sleep, he wasn't about to wait around in a room for sleep to come to him. He could go and do something that would tire him out, and then come back. Training in the forest near the village sounded like a good idea. Kanda hadn't encountered a yokai for a while but he still wanted to be in shape for when they did show up. He was no exorcist, but he had figured out how to fight a yokai with a human weapon. He wondered what Allen would say when he saw it.

Kanda paused for a moment, suddenly stricken by this thought of the yokai. It was painful, remembering him in everything he did, but at least the memory was kept alive. He continued to get dressed and picked up his katana. He quietly left the inn and strode through the village like a specter, not wanting to catch anyone's attention. Soon he reached the thin outskirts of the forest. He walked on, looking for a clearing to practice in. Kanda was careful to avoid stepping on sticks and leaves that would make noises that would sound ridiculously loud in the quiet night. Even the animal noises were few and usually muffled by the trees. That was fine though. Kanda liked silence better than noise.

He narrowed his eyes and could almost make out a clearing far ahead of him when a nostalgic wave rushed over him. Kanda stopped short. He would recognize that feeling anywhere.

Allen.

Kanda looked around in the direction he was sure the wave came from. He ran through the trees now, not caring if he made noise as he crashed along, looking for something specific.

There: an old wooden shrine, larger than the one from the ruins. Several steps led up to a sliding door, behind which would be the place for people to pray and make sacrifices. Kanda didn't care to which god or spirit this was dedicated to, because he could feel a familiar sad longing coming from it.

Kanda tried to calm his racing heart but practically flew up the steps. He grabbed at the door and pushed it aside.

Sitting inside, much like the last time, was a small, pale yokai. Kanda sighed in relief. He had finally found him.

Allen walked into the moonlight and Kanda could tell that some things were different. Last time, Allen looked like he was a ten-year-old child. Now, over the course of a year and a half, the yokai looked like he had aged at least five years. He was taller and his body was fuller, though still slim. His face was still round and childlike, with the newer purple mark on the left side. He was wearing a thin white shirt that billowed in the slight breeze and loose grayish pants. Once again, he was bound to the small altar behind him with a ghostly chain. But his eyes and hair, and facial expression were just the same as they had been when Kanda last saw him.

The silver eyes widened, then almost filled with tears. "K-Kanda," he whispered.

Kanda wasted no time in cutting away the chain and taking the yokai in his arms. He held Allen firmly for what felt like an hour, listening to Allen breathing. Finally the broken sobs subsided and he reluctantly released the yokai, looking straight into the face of the still-short boy.

"Do I still need to offer to grant a wish to get free?" Allen asked with a smile. Kanda's eyes blinked in surprise. Then he sighed and stroked Allen's cheek.

"Sure, but my wish is to be with you." He replied, letting the happiness overflow in his heart. "And to finally ditch Lavi and Alma," he added as an afterthought.

Allen laughed, his bright smile truly showing how glad he was to see Kanda. "I'll do that. Anything for you,"

Kanda considered asking why Allen looked different, but he decided against it. He didn't need to listen to an absent-minded yokai anatomy lesson. He had finally gotten Allen back again and he wasn't about to waste time by taking about stupid things. His feelings began to run through his mind again and he seized Allen again in an embrace. Kanda's arms shook slightly as he hugged Allen tightly. The fifteen-year-old body was definitely better than the last one. And Allen felt more tangible than ever, almost like an actual human, though he still retained his otherworldly aspects. Kanda ran the fingers of one hand through the yokai's white hair. He never wanted to let him go again.

But the emotion and passion began to intensify within him. He wanted more. He had been longing after Allen for a fucking year and a half! And now, away from Lavi and Alma, he felt like he could do whatever he wanted, with the yokai he loved.

Kanda took Allen's face in his hands, tilted it slightly, and crushed his lips onto the younger's in a bruising kiss. Eyes half-lidded, he stared deep into the other's silver eyes, which reflected his own like pools of pure water. Allen's pale face flushed a faint pink color, but his eyes also softened and displayed a desire as longing as Kanda's before slowly closing. But Kanda still wanted more. He pulled apart for a moment and licked his lips, still watching Allen's beautiful face in bliss from the contact.

He met Allen again another kiss, which lasted for a few moments as his lips were gentler this time, almost massaging Allen's in a half-apology for the force of the first. Then, Kanda softly licked Allen's bottom lip, while releasing the boy's face with one hand and snaking it around the Allen's body. He slipped his hand under the yokai's thin shirt and stroked the soft skin, marveling inwardly at the near-flawless body. Allen reacted quickly to this, shivering and opening his mouth, trying to take in a breath of air, but Kanda took advantage of this short moment and slipped his tongue into Allen's mouth. He briefly stroked Allen's warm tongue with his own, while keeping his arms where they were.

Then Kanda gradually pulled away, opening his eyes more to see how Allen felt. The yokai seemed drunk on the sensations, as his eyes fluttered open, as if asking for more contact. They both breathed deeply but slowly, completely absorbed in each other and the moment. Even in the darkness, they could see every detail of the other perfectly.

Kanda decided that was enough of a break. He wanted his beansprout-yokai-Allen-whatever, and he wanted him now.

He leaned in again, and Allen gripped his back tightly, meeting him halfway. They kissed again and this time, Allen joined Kanda as they both moved their tongues in a slow, heated dance. Kanda finally took over the kiss and soon moved his mouth to Allen's face, then his neck and shoulders. Allen rolled his head back, writhing in delighted ecstasy as he felt every kiss and bite that Kanda gave and took. Allen's hands went from Kanda's back to his hair to his chest, while Kanda simply kept the other's body where he wanted it. He would stroke his chest and back one moment, then slowly move to his face or his hair in the next. Every movement was directed by the intense passion of their love and longing for each other.

Kanda eventually released Allen, who was completely dazed from the experience. He guided the yokai to sit down on the steps of the shrine, and allowed him to lean onto his shoulder. He held the smaller body softly but firmly, reminding him without words that he belonged to only Kanda. He whispered into the feathery white hair as they both closed their eyes to the night around them.

"Forget the past, beansprout. I don't care about what happened. Just follow me, forever."

Allen smiled, loving everything. "Of course I will. I love you."

"…I love you too."

.

..

**The End**

* * *

><p><strong>Kimiko: Well, that's it. Like I said before, it's a much happier tending than I originally planned. And I even spent extra time trying to write a lime, to resolve the open ending from chapter 15. I don't know if it's any good, but I thought it was pretty cute while I was writing it. <strong>

**Flanagan: Please review and tell us what you thought. We're not writing any more of this, because Kimiko already came up with two new ideas for DGM slash fics. I told her just to do one at a time, though.**

**Both: Thanks so much for reading! See you later! **


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